Carbon footprint of tourism in Spain: Covid-19 impact and a look forward to recovery

Tourism is very vulnerable to climate change and the disruption of Covid-19, facing two challenges: fighting climate change pursuing its carbon emissions goals, and recovering from the complex pandemic effects. We contribute to the incomplete understanding of tourism emissions pandemic impact and in...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Osorio Morallón, Pilar, Cadarso, María Ángeles, Tobarra Gómez, María Ángeles, García Alaminos, Ángela
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha
Repositorio:RUIdeRA. Repositorio Institucional de la UCLM
OAI Identifier:oai:ruidera.uclm.es:10578/31178
Acceso en línea:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.strueco.2023.03.003
https://hdl.handle.net/10578/31178
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Tourism
Carbon emissions
Multiregional input-output model
Pandemic impact
Scenarios
Classification codes
Descripción
Sumario:Tourism is very vulnerable to climate change and the disruption of Covid-19, facing two challenges: fighting climate change pursuing its carbon emissions goals, and recovering from the complex pandemic effects. We contribute to the incomplete understanding of tourism emissions pandemic impact and in different post-covid recovery scenarios. Using official data on tourists’ consumption, we calculate the carbon footprint of tourism in Spain in 2019 and 2020 under different recovery pathways, including changes in onsumption patterns and emissions efficiency, using a multiregional input-output model. Results show that the carbon footprint of tourism in Spain fell by 63% in 2020 compared to pre-pandemic levels, which would be aligned with the current sectoral decarbonisation target. However, the new tourists’ consumption patterns resulting from the pandemic are insufficient to increase tourism sustainability if they imply pre-pandemic consumption levels. The results provide empirical ground for the binary debate on “recovery or reform”.