Holiday travel discourses and climate change

Current analyses highlight the relatively high contribution of holiday travel to greenhouse gas emissions. One response has been a growing ‘slow travel’ movement. Slow travel is an emerging concept which can be explained as an alternative to air and car travel where people travel to destinations more slowly overland and travel less distance. At first glance, slow travel might seem to preclude much international tourism, however, as an adaptation strategy, slow travel has the potential to reduce tourism’s overall carbon footprint. Data were collected using in-depth interviews with 15 UK participants before and after a holiday to another European country. The analysis explores the discourses used by both slow and non-slow travellers to justify modal choice in relation to climate change. Then, using a social practices model, the paper explores how holiday travel is constrained by both individual agency to act and the structures that exist within the travel and tourism industry. The paper concludes with some recommendations for the development of slow travel as a tourism adaptation strategy for a lower carbon future.     

Analysis on bargaining about global climate change mitigation in international aviation sector

Understanding the basic interaction mechanism among nations surrounding the CO₂ emissions is critically important for the policy formulation analysis in aviation sector at present, especially for market-based measures such as emission allowance trading. We performed simulation analysis of the effects on pricing of emission allowances by including major players such as China and India into the hypothetical global CO₂ emission trading scheme according to non-cooperative game framework. In the presence of a negative public good, i.e., CO₂, we extended the Lindahl–Bowen–Samuelson condition to include a class of uncertainty typical in climate change policy into utility. By using the result, we explained, with some numerical examples, the welfare effects caused by the changes of factors, such as level of uncertainty, degree of risk averse, asymmetric utility structure, initial allocation among players, based on our model surrounding the bargaining of CO₂ emissions allocation games.     

Tourism,climate change and adaptation: a review

The relationship between tourism and changing climate has been discussed and studied for a relatively long time in tourism research. Over the past 15 years, more focused studies have begun to appear, and especially recently, the issue of adaptation has been emphasised as an urgent research need in tourism and climate change studies. This paper is based on a systematic review of the tourism and adaptation literature prior to 2012. It discusses adaptation challenges, the dimensions of vulnerability in a tourism context and the implications of such studies on communities. By dividing the current adaptation studies into business; consumer; destination; and policy- and framework-focused theme areas and traditions, the paper concludes that adaptation studies in tourism have so far had a limited focus on community perceptions, which in general has been an area of major interest in tourism research. More emphasis on community-based research in relation to tourism and climate change allows highly contextual adaptation challenges to be met in a more sustainable way.     

The travel behaviour intentions of young people in the context of climate change

This article examines the factors influencing the future travel behaviour intentions of young people (aged 11–18), with specific attention given to how climate change considerations affect these. Overall it is found that the participants’ travel behaviour intentions are dominated by a desire to drive and that their values relating to identity, self-image, and social recognition (at the expense of their environmental values), as well as their affective attitudes towards transport modes, are key influences on this. Although they are aware of climate change, the participants’ understanding of the link between transport and climate change was weak. At the same time, they illustrated an apathy towards climate change – in part due to the timing and intangibility of its associated impacts and their lack of self-efficacy with respect to tackling this issue. However, despite claiming that their current environmentally friendly travel behaviours (such as walking or cycling to school) are not influenced by the issue of climate change, a number are accepting of the idea of enforced travel behaviour change – away from use of the car, towards more ‘environmentally friendly’ modes. This acceptance was in part due to their belief that such action would remove the influence of the ‘social dilemma’, where their own efforts to tackle climate change may be rendered worthless by the inaction of others.     

Inside the black box: EU policy officers' perspectives on transport and climate change mitigation

Transport is a significant and growing contributor to climate change. To stay within ‘safe’ global warming guardrails requires substantial cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. This represents a global political consensus, but there is evidence that current legislation in the transport sector is not significant enough to achieve medium- and longer-term reduction goals. In focusing on the European Union, this paper investigates the perspectives of twelve policy officers in three Directorates-General (MOVE, CLIMA, ENV) of the European Commission with regard to their understanding of mitigation goals and timelines, responsibilities for policy development and implementation, and perceived efficiencies of these policies to achieve climate objectives in the transport sector. Results indicate diverging and common views on climate policy goals and political responsibilities, as well as barriers to policy-making, including lack of political leadership on climate change mitigation, resistance from member states, the favoring of economic growth over cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, pressure from industry and lobby groups, preferential treatment of aero- and automobility over more sustainable transport modes, policy implementation delays, insufficient forecasting and monitoring tools, and an overreliance on technologies to contribute to emission reductions. In offering a view inside the ‘black box’ of transport policy-making, the paper reveals fundamental institutional (structural) and individual (agency-based) barriers that will have to be overcome if significant emission cuts in the transport sector are to be achieved.     

Tourism and climate change: a review of threats and adaptation strategies for Africa

The intersection of tourism and climate change has seen significant research over the past two decades, focusing particularly on issues of mitigation and adaptation in the global North. Research output has predominantly been centred on the Mediterranean and Nordic countries and number of localities in North America. The global South has seen significantly less investigation, despite having significantly lower adaptive capacity to the impacts of climate change, and numerous countries with rapidly growing tourism sectors. The African continent specifically has seen appreciably less research than other countries in the global South, despite arguably having the lowest adaptive capacity and projections of severe impacts of climate change to the tourism sector from temperature increases, changes in precipitation volume and sea level rise. This paper therefore presents a review of the existing literature on adaptation strategies of tourism sectors and participants in African countries. The crucial argument of this paper is in highlighting the need for an increase in research into the threats of climate change to tourism in African countries, identifying future research trajectories. The development of such knowledge would assist in the development of adaptation and mitigation strategies for these most vulnerable tourism economies.     

Tourism,climate change and the mass media: the representation of the issue in Spain

This paper sets out to analyse the information dedicated to climate change and tourism in the Spanish press in the Mediterranean region of the peninsula during the period 1990–2010. Specifically, it seeks to determine the quantitative evolution of media coverage of climate change and tourism and the importance given to this subject. Adequate media attention in both quantitative and qualitative terms could greatly influence public concern and contribute to the social mobilization that will be needed to negotiate/resist the phenomenon in a geographical area in which tourism is a major economic and territorial driver and which is particularly vulnerable to climate change. To construct the corpus, we undertook a systematic analysis of newspaper coverage of tourism and climate change in the media selected; and we carried out content analysis of the 1014 units identified. The results indicate that the coverage is outstanding in quantitative terms. However, the importance given to the subject is quite marginal.     

Cities, mobility and climate change

Societies gain enormous benefits from travel, as economies have become more globalised and as the new communications infrastructure allows international networking and travel at a low cost. There has been a true internationalisation of all activities, and travel forms an essential part of that process. However, this mobility is fuelled by carbon, and there is clear scientific agreement that carbon emissions are affecting the global climate with irreversible long term consequences. Transport is the one sector where a reduction in energy use and emissions is proving to be extraordinarily difficult to achieve despite some success in urban areas. This paper focuses on cities, mobility and climate change, highlighting recent trends in both developed and developing countries. It is argued that the current situation is unsustainable, and that transport must contribute fully to achieving carbon reduction targets. An alternative is presented, based on the sustainable mobility paradigm (Banister, 2008) that looks at ways to reduce the need to travel in cities. The belief that high mobility and technology provides the solution is misplaced, as technological innovation can only get us part of the way to sustainable transport, and this may facilitate more travel. There are opportunities for cities to switch to low carbon transport futures, where vision and action are based on a combination of economic, planning and technological innovations working in mutually supporting ways. Potentially, the future is bright for low carbon transport in cities, but the real question is whether there is the commitment and leadership to follow such a path.     

Hub location under capacity constraints

Hub-and-spoke networks are employed in cargo transportation. This paper presents a model for hub location in these kinds of networks. Hubs are considered capacity limited. For that reason, costs due to congestion in hubs are introduced into the model. A Simulated Annealing algorithm has been developed to solve the model. The algorithm includes a balanced module, the purpose of which is to reduce congestion. Each hub is modelled as an M/M/1 queuing system. The algorithm has been tested in randomly created networks. The results show that when a situation of congestion occurs, the proposed algorithm enables better solutions to be found, thereby improving the standard of service.     

Climate change and the air travel decisions of UK tourists

Whilst much effort has been made to communicate to the public the importance of reducing carbon footprints in the home, one area where emissions are growing rapidly and little attempt has been made to increase consumer understanding of the impacts is holidays, particularly those involving air travel. Using focus group research, this paper explores tourists’ awareness of the impacts of travel on climate change, examines the extent to which climate change features in holiday travel decisions and identifies some of the barriers to the adoption of less carbon-intensive tourism practices. The findings suggest that many tourists do not consider climate change when planning their holidays. The failure of tourists to engage with the climate change impact of holidays, combined with significant barriers to behavioural change, presents a considerable challenge in moving the tourism industry onto a sustainable emissions path. The findings are discussed in relation to theoretical perspectives from psychology and sociology.     

Transport and climate change: a review

Transport accounts for 26% of global CO₂ emissions and is one of the few industrial sectors where emissions are still growing. Car use, road freight and aviation are the principal contributors to greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector and this review focuses on approaches to reduce emissions from these three problem areas. An assessment of new technologies including alternative transport fuels to break the dependence on petroleum is presented, although it appears that technological innovation is unlikely to be the sole answer to the climate change problem. To achieve a stabilisation of greenhouse gas emissions from transport, behavioural change brought about by policy will also be required. Pressure is growing on policy makers to tackle the issue of climate change with a view to providing sustainable transport. Although, there is a tendency to focus on long-term technological solutions, short-term behavioural change is crucial if the benefits of new technology are to be fully realised.     

The governance of transport and climate change

Climate change is one of the key global policy issues of our time. Transport is the sector from which it has been hardest to cut emissions and, to make substantial progress in the future, action will be required at all levels of government from international to local. The governance of transport within this already challenging arena is further complicated by the existence of different structures for the management of transport modes and variations in formal governance structures across countries and regions.This paper examines the prospect for deep cuts in CO₂ emissions from transport through an examination of the key policy levers for change and considering the governance issues that surround them. The focus of the paper is the United Kingdom, and in particular England and Scotland. The UK is the first country to have a legally binding internal obligation to meet carbon dioxide reduction targets and this has prompted significant activity in both governance institutions and delivery. The research uses a multi-level governance framework to understand the policy environment in England and Scotland, capturing both the range of spatial actors and the influence of sectoral actors in what is a complex polity.It is concluded that the policy approach currently appears constrained by a desire to divide accountability by formal institutional structures, thus failing to tackle the dispersed nature of travel and the national and international nature of businesses. There is currently a lack of clarity about the tiering of responsibilities between spatial levels and there is therefore a comparative lack of commitment to the potential for demand management and travel reduction strategies to contribute to carbon reduction. Carbon reduction policies are also influenced by strong industry lobbies whose goals may not be fully aligned with carbon reduction strategies. The profusion of actors engaged in climate change policy seems to dilute rather than promote effective policy making.     

Evaluating voluntary travel behaviour change: Suggested guidelines and case studies

Since the late 1990s, voluntary travel behaviour change (VTBC) has been an increasingly popular strategy in Australia, applied to reduce both reliance on the car and greenhouse gas emissions. Early efforts to evaluate the impact of this strategy were generally implemented by the agency that also implemented the policy and used small sample, self-report surveys. The paper starts out by discussing the nature and size of travel behaviour changes that are frequently expected in current policy, noting that these are often smaller than the sampling and measurement errors in traditional methods of measuring travel behaviour. The paper then discusses some alternative methods of evaluating voluntary travel behaviour change implementations using panels to reduce sampling error, and using a combination of personal Global Positioning System devices and odometer reading surveys to measure travel patterns. From these considerations, a number of guidelines are suggested for what is required to evaluate voluntary travel behaviour change. The paper describes three recent case studies in Australia in which such methods have been used and evaluates the methodological approaches used in these studies against the suggested guidelines.     

Evaluation of voluntary travel behaviour change: Experiences from three continents

The past 20 years has seen a rapid growth across the world in the number, range and scale of voluntary travel behaviour change (VTBC) initiatives. These so-called ‘soft’ measures have challenged the assumption that modal shift is only possible through ‘hard’ system-based measures, or through regulation. Among the most high-profile VTBC initiatives is a household-based behaviour change technique known as Individualised Travel Marketing. This dialogue marketing approach was developed by Socialdata (under the brand name IndiMark^®) in response to its own research suggesting that a lack of information and motivation, and incorrect perceptions of the alternatives to the car, were significant barriers to modal shift. IndiMark has been applied in more than 100 pilot and nearly 150 large-scale projects, targeting a total of more than three million people on three continents. A key factor in this widespread take up has been the consistent use of a detailed evaluation design, employing travel behaviour surveys before and after the IndiMark intervention, using Socialdata's KONTIV^® survey method. This well-established design uses a self-administered, mail-back questionnaire, coupled with motivation by post and telephone to encourage high response rates (typically between 60% and 80%) helping to provide reliable data on mobility behaviour. This paper reviews the development of the IndiMark technique and the key features of its evaluation using the KONTIV^® survey method. It draws on this experience to address key challenges in the evaluation of VTBC initiatives, and to identify the common threads of an integrated approach which might strengthen the case for all soft measures.     

Perceived constraints to travel across the US‐Mexico border among American university students

This paper examines the primary structural barriers or constraints to travel across the US‐Mexico border to visit Mexican border towns, in particular among students at a major university near the border. Factor analyses resulted in the identification of three primary types of perceived constraints erected by the international boundary, namely, personal safety, institutional and disinterest. Pearson correlation tests found that familiarity with the border and what lies on the other side does not have a significant bearing on the barriers perceived by student travellers. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ethics and influences in tourist perceptions of climate change

Ethical decisions to visit disappearing destinations are self-serving and influences feed into self-interest. Data were collected from a sample of pre-, during- and post-visit tourists to Venice and Svalbard, using expressive techniques and scenarios using the Hunt–Vitell model to understand ethical decisions, and the constructive technique and collage to understand influences. The results show that travel decisions are driven by individual selfishness, and any threat to freedom (i.e. the right to travel) is underplayed. The preferred scenario for long-term benefit for planet and people is via short-term economic and social negative impacts on the destination's locals, rather than the tourists' own experience. Respondents believe that they are blameless for their purchasing habits as they lack perceived behavioural control, and instead corporations ought to be providing sustainable products as the norm and not sell products that harm. In the scenarios, where respondents express concern for the locals in a disappearing destination (i.e. if we do not visit, they will not benefit from our expenditure), individual selfishness to visit could be the driver, rather than an altruistic act to provide support. Theoretical and policy implications are discussed.     

Tourism and transformation: negotiating metaphors,experiencing change

The article introduces this special issue on tourism and transformation. After offering a brief review of the place and significance of ‘transformation’ in social sciences studies of tourism – from ‘impact studies’ to ethnographies of tourists and, more recently, ‘tourist media studies’ – we propose to take one step further and focus our attention on the performativity and reflexivity of ‘transformation’. Our main argument is that much may be gained analytically by considering how notions and experiences of transformation are addressed, negotiated and purposefully deployed in tourism contexts. We conclude with an outline of each of the contributions to this special issue, stressing that the collection re-opens the issue of transformation in tourism and provides new insights into how experiences-turned-metaphors and metaphors-turned-experiences influence both the travel experience and the development of theory.     

A critical review of climate change risk for ski tourism

Ski tourism is a multi-billion dollar international market attracting between 300 and 350 million annual skier visits. With its strong reliance on specific climatic conditions, the ski industry is regarded as the tourism market most directly and immediately affected by climate change. A critical review of the 119 publications that have examined the climate change risk of ski tourism in 27 countries is provided. This growing and increasingly diverse literature has projected decreased reliability of slopes dependent on natural snow, increased snowmaking requirements, shortened and more variable ski seasons, a contraction in the number of operating ski areas, altered competitiveness among and within regional ski markets, and attendant implications for ski tourism employment and values of vacation property real estate values. The extent and timing of these consequences depend on the rate of climate change and the types of adaptive responses by skiers as well as ski tourism destinations and their competitors. The need to understanding differential climate risk grows as investors and financial regulators increasingly require climate risk disclosure at the destination and company scale. Key knowledge gaps to better assist ski tourism destinations to adapt to future climate risk are identified.