Evaluating regional low-carbon tourism strategies using the fuzzy Delphi- analytic network process approach

In support of an ambitious target to reduce carbon intensity by from 40 to 45 percent by the year 2020, as proposed by numerous leaders around the globe, various industries in China have come to think of carbon emissions reduction as an important part of their overall corporate strategy. As an energy-intense economic sector (Gössling, 2013), tourism is thus expected to play an important role in reducing CO2 emissions in China. However, low-carbon tourism in most destinations, and especially in newly-emerging tourism destinations, is being neglected to some extent. Examples of this neglect can be found in such areas as China's Chengguan District of Lhasa, which has ambitions to become a world tourism centre. This study develops a fuzzy Delphi-ANP approach to suggest which low-carbon tourism strategy should be adopted in Chengguan District in the coming years. Applying our approach, we find that the priorities of low-carbon tourism strategies in Chengguan District are: first, economic development (0.1965), secondly, environmental construction (0.1593), and finally, social support (0.1442). Specifically, the importance of the indicators for tourism carbon intensity, low-carbon transportation, education regarding a low-carbon environment, carbon sink density and sewage treatment are stressed in this paper, in order to call for the immediate implementation of low-carbon tourism development in Chengguan District.