The measurement and comparative study of carbon dioxide emissions from tourism in typical provinces in China

The calculation of carbon dioxide emissions from tourism is the precondition of setting goals of energy conservation and emission mitigation in certain areas of China. It's also essential to the sustainable tourism development in certain areas. This paper develops a method, based on the concept of “tourism consumption stripping coefficient”, to calculate the emissions from tourism of Beijing, Shandong, Zhejiang, Hubei and Hainan. The study shows that during 2009 and 2011, the total emissions from tourism of the five provinces and cities kept increasing, while emissions per tourist dropped from 56.569 kg to 54.088 kg. During this period, Hainan's emissions from tourism remained the lowest. Hubei's emissions from tourism surged from the third place in 2009 to the first place in 2011. Beijing was the only subject area to show an un-disturbed downward trend. Hainan, though with the lowest total emissions, had the highest emissions per tourist. Only Beijing and Hainan saw their emissions per tourist dropped continuously during 2009 and 2011. Zhejiang's emissions from tourism showed a reverse U-shape trend, while those of Shandong and Hubei showed U-shape trends. In the future, China should promote energy conservation and emission reduction through formulating action guidelines, innovating energy conservation technology, strengthening environmental protection awareness and regional tourism cooperation.