Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T03:56:06.721Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Applying the ecological footprint to ecotourism scenarios

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2006

COLIN HUNTER  and
JON SHAW
COLIN HUNTER*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Environment, University of Aberdeen, Elphinstone Road, Aberdeen, AB24 3UF, UK
JON SHAW
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Environment, University of Aberdeen, Elphinstone Road, Aberdeen, AB24 3UF, UK
*
*Correspondence: Dr Colin Hunter Tel: +44 1224 273694 Fax: +44 1224 272331 e-mail: geo341@abdn.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Academic interest in ecotourism has grown rapidly in recent years, fuelled by the increasing popularity of ecotourism holidays. This paper adopts ecological footprint (EF) analysis as a means of estimating the potential net EF of hypothetical international ecotourism scenarios involving air travel. A procedure for the rapid calculation of indicative, potential minimum net EF estimates using secondary data sources was applied to a variety of source/host country scenarios with the aim of establishing a reasonable and conservative range of EF values associated with ecotourism. The influence of changing assumptions about the broad nature of resource demand at the destination and of three length of stay periods was considered. In total, 252 estimates were made of the potential net per tourist EF, assuming conservative resource use at the destination. For a 14-day holiday, potential net EF estimates ranged between 0.02 and 4.26 global hectares. Only one, a 21-day scenario, produced a net negative EF value, suggesting the potential for an overall reduction in absolute demand on global renewable resources. Some 80% of 14-day holiday scenarios produced potential per tourist EF estimates greater than the annual average per caput EF in low income countries. The size of the transit component was very important to overall net EF estimates, supporting largely anecdotal concerns about the environmental impact of long-haul flights to ecotourism destinations. The implications of these findings for judging the impact of ecotourism were found to vary according to different absolute and relative benchmarks, although the global EF of ecotourism is likely to be considerably less than that of mass tourism.

Keywords

ecological footprintecotourismindicatorsustainable developmentsustainable tourism
Type
Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 32 , Issue 4 , December 2005 , pp. 294 - 304
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aeroports de Paris (2005) Notre plus belle destination, c'est vous [www document]. URL http://www.aeroportsdeparis.fr/ADP/en-GB/Passagers/RechercheHoraire?RechercheHoraires.htmGoogle Scholar
Becken, S. (2002) Analysing international tourist flows to estimate energy use associated with air travel. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 10 (2): 114–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bell, S. & Morse, S. (2003) Measuring Sustainability: Learning From Doing. London, UK: Earthscan.Google Scholar
British Airports Authority (2005 a) BAA Heathrow – the official airport website [www document]. URL http://www.heathrowairport.com/Google Scholar
British Airports Authority (2005 b) BAA Gatwick – the official airport website [www document]. URL http://www.gatwickairport.com/Google Scholar
Buckley, R. (2003 a) Environmental inputs and outputs in ecotourism: geotourism with a triple bottom line? Journal of Ecotourism 2 (1): 76–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buckley, R. (2003 b) Case Studies in Ecotourism. Wallingford, UK: CABI Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cater, E. & Lowman, G. (1994) Ecotourism: A Sustainable Option? Chichester, UK: Wiley.Google Scholar
Chambers, N., Griffiths, P., Lewis, K. & Jenkin, N. (2004) Scotland's Footprint: a Resource Flow and Ecological Footprint Analysis of Scotland. Oxford, UK: Best Foot Forward.Google Scholar
Chambers, N., Simmons, C. & Wackernagel, M. (2000) Sharing Nature's Interest: Ecological Footprints as an Indicator of Sustainability. London, UK: Earthscan.Google Scholar
de Villiers, D. (2003) Introduction. In: Sustainable Development of Ecotourism: a Compilation of Good Practices in SMEs, ed. World Tourism Organization, p. 9. Madrid, Spain: WTO.Google Scholar
Energy Efficiency Conservation Authority (1999) Energy-wise Monitoring Quarterly. New Zealand's Transport Sector Energy Use: Highlights, Issue 14. Wellington, New Zealand: EECA.Google Scholar
Fennell, D. (2002 a) Ecotourism Programme Planning. Wallingford, UK: CABI Publishing.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fennell, D. (2002 b) Ecotourism: where we've been; where we're going. Journal of Ecotourism 1 (1): 1–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gössling, S. (1999) Ecotourism: a means to safeguard biodiversity and ecosystem functions? Ecological Economics 29: 303–320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gössling, S. (2002) Global environmental consequences of tourism. Global Environmental Change 12: 283–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gössling, S., Borgstrom Hansson, C., Horstmeier, O. & Saggel, S. (2002) Ecological footprint analysis as a tool to assess tourism sustainability. Ecological Economics 43: 199–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, C. (2002) Sustainable tourism and the touristic ecological footprint. Environment, Development and Sustainability 4 (1): 7–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, C. & Shaw, J. (2006) The ecological footprint as a key indicator of sustainable tourism. Tourism Management (in press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunter, C., Carmichael, K. & Pangbourne, K. (2006) Household ecological footprinting using a new diary-based data gathering approach. Local Environment (in press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IPCC (1999) Aviation and the Global Atmosphere. A Special Report of IPCC Working Groups I and III. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kontogeorgopoulos, N. (2004) Ecotourism and mass tourism in southern Thailand: spatial interdependence, structural connections, and staged authenticity. GeoJournal 61: 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, D. (2004) The impact of aviation on climate. In: Transport and the Environment – Issues in Environmental Science and Technology (No. 20), ed. Hester, R.E. & Harrison, R.M., pp. 1–23. Cambridge, UK: Royal Society of Chemistry.Google Scholar
Lenzen, M. (1999) Total requirements of energy and greenhouse gases for Australian transport. Transportation Research Part D 4D (4): 265–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lenzen, M. & Murray, S. (2001) A modified ecological footprint method and its application to Australia. Ecological Economics 37: 229–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lenzen, M., Dey, C. & Foran, B. (2004) Energy requirements of Sydney households. Ecological Economics 49: 375–399.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Los Angeles World Airports (2005) Welcome to Los Angeles World Airports [www document]. URL http://www.lawa.org/lax/welcomeLAX.cfmGoogle Scholar
Meyer, D. (2003) The UK outbound tour operating industry and implications for pro-poor tourism. Pro-Poor Tourism Working Paper No. 17, Overseas Development Institute, London, UK.Google Scholar
Monfreda, C., Wackernagel, M. & Deumling, D. (2004) Establishing national natural capital accounts based on detailed ecological and biological capacity accounts. Land Use Policy 21: 231–246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mowforth, M. & Munt, M. (2003) Tourism and Sustainability: Development and New Tourism in the Third World, Second edition. London, UK: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nijkamp, P., Rossi, E. & Vindigni, G. (2004) Ecological footprints in plural: a meta-analytic comparison of empirical results. Regional Studies 38 (7): 747–765.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narita International Airport (2005) Official website [www document]. URL http://www.narita-airport.jp/en/Google Scholar
Nyaupane, G.P. & Thapa, B. (2004) Evaluation of ecotourism: a comparative assessment in the Annapurna conservation area project, Nepal. Journal of Ecotourism 3 (1): 20–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Page, S. & Dowling, R. (2002) Ecotourism. Harlow, UK: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (2005) Official John F Kennedy International Airport Homepage [www document]. URL http://www.panynj.gov/Google Scholar
Rees, W.E. (1992) Ecological footprints and appropriated carrying capacity: what urban economics leaves out. Environment and Urbanization 4 (2): 121–130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rees, W.E. & Wackernagel, M. (1994) Ecological footprints and appropriated carrying capacity: measuring the natural capital requirements of the human economy. In: Investing in Natural Capital: The Ecological Economics Approach to Sustainability, ed. Jansson, A.M., Hammer, M.H., Folke, C. & Costanza, R., pp. 362–390 Washington, USA: Island Press.Google Scholar
Ross, S. & Wall, G. (1999) Ecotourism: towards congruence between theory and practice. Tourism Management 20: 123–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schumann, U. (1994) On the effect of emissions from aircraft engines on the state of the atmosphere. Annales Geophysicae 12: 365–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmons, D.G. & Becken, S. (2004) The cost of getting there: impacts of travel to ecotourism destinations. In: Environmental Impacts of Ecotourism, ed. Buckley, R., pp. 15–23. Wallingford, UK: CABI.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
TIES (2000) Ecotourism statistical fact sheet [www document]. URL http://www.ecotourism.org/research/stats/files/stats.pdfGoogle Scholar
UN General Assembly (2003) Assessment of the results achieved in realizing aims and objectives of the International Year of Ecotourism [www document]. URL http://www.world-tourism.org/sustainable/IYE/IYE-Rep-UN-GA-2003.pdfGoogle Scholar
Venetoulis, J., Chazan, D. & Gaudet, C. (2004) Ecological Footprint of Nations. Oakland, USA: Redefining Progress.Google Scholar
Wackernagel, M. & Rees, W.E. (1996) Our Ecological Footprints: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth. Gabriola Island, USA: New Society Publishers.Google Scholar
Wackernagel, M. & Yount, J.D. (2000) Footprints for sustainability: the next steps. Environment, Development and Sustainability 2: 21–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wackernagel, M., Onisto, L., Bello, P., Linareas, A.C., Falfan, I., Garcia, J., Guerrero, A. & Guerrero, C. (1999) National natural capital accounting with the ecological footprint concept. Ecological Economics 29: 375–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wall, G. (1997) Is ecotourism sustainable? Environmental Management 21 (4): 483–491.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Watkin, J. (2003) The evolution of ecotourism in East Africa: from an idea to an industry. IIED Wildlife and Development Series No. 15, International Institute for Environment and Development, London, UK.Google Scholar
Wiedmann, T., Minx, J., Barrett, J. & Wackernagel, M. (2005) Allocating ecological footprints to final consumption categories with input-output analysis. Ecological Economics (in press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolfe, T. (2004) Rio Negro expedition report, 9th to 17th April, 2004, Southern Cross Tours & Expeditions UK [www document]. URL http://www.amazon-brazil-expeditions.com/TOURS/ReportRioNegroRainforest.htmGoogle Scholar
World Ecotourism Summit (2002) Quebec Declaration on Ecotourism [www document]. URL http://www.world-tourism.org/sustainable/IYE/quebec/anglais/quebec-eng.pdfGoogle Scholar
WTO (2002) Tourism Highlights: Edition 2002. Madrid, Spain: WTO.Google Scholar
WTO (2003) Sustainable Development of Ecotourism: A Compilation of Good Practices in SMEs. Madrid, Spain: WTO.Google Scholar
WTO (2004) Tourism Highlights: Edition 2004. Madrid, Spain: WTO.Google Scholar
World Travel and Tourism Council (2005) World Development Indicators – World Bank 2004. International tourist arrivals [www document]. URL http://www.wttc.org/NU_compmon/compmon04/Individual%20Files/ArrGrowth.xlsGoogle Scholar
WWF, United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Redefining Progress & The Centre for Sustainability Studies (2000) Living Planet Report 2000. Gland, Switzerland: WWF.Google Scholar
WWF, United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre & Global Footprint Network (2004) Living Planet Report 2004. Gland, Switerland: WWF.Google Scholar
WWF-UK (2002) Holiday Footprinting: A Practical Tool for Responsible Tourism. Godalming, UK: WWF-UK.Google Scholar