IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/sustdv/v33y2025i3p3525-3553.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Identifying Critical Paths and Drivers of Carbon Emissions From Tourism: An Integrated Analysis Toward Sustainable Tourism

Author

Listed:
  • Ting Tan
  • Zihan Chen
  • Rong Ma
  • Lamei He
  • Jianping Zha

Abstract

Given the highly fragmented structure and strong industrial linkages of the tourism industry, exploring the flow and drivers of carbon transfer is critical for sustainable tourism. This study combines the environmentally extended input–output (EEIO) model with structural decomposition analysis (SDA) and structural path analysis (SPA) to identify the key sectors, paths, and drivers of carbon emissions from tourism. Taking China as a case, the results show that: (1) China's tourism carbon emissions grew from 34.68 Mt. in 2002 to 137.87 Mt. in 2019, with road transport (22.58%), food and beverage services (21.10%), shopping (20.52%), and air transport (14.91%) constituting the primary emitters. (2) Critical supply chain path “source sector → tourism‐related sectors → final demand” spurring carbon growth of tourism primarily centers on the tourism‐related sectors associated with road transport, air transport, food and beverage services, and shopping, where the source sectors mainly come from energy and food supply, manufacturing, transportation, and logistics sectors. (3) Despite considerable sectoral and path‐level heterogeneity, the key driver for inhibiting tourism carbon emissions is direct energy intensity, while final demand remains the main obstacle to low‐carbon tourism. In addition to the limited effect of energy restructuring, the promising role of optimizing the supply of intermediate goods in cubing tourism carbon emissions is revealed. Finally, relevant theoretical and policy implications are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Ting Tan & Zihan Chen & Rong Ma & Lamei He & Jianping Zha, 2025. "Identifying Critical Paths and Drivers of Carbon Emissions From Tourism: An Integrated Analysis Toward Sustainable Tourism," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(3), pages 3525-3553, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:33:y:2025:i:3:p:3525-3553
    DOI: 10.1002/sd.3286
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.3286
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/sd.3286?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Park, Hi-Chun & Heo, Eunnyeong, 2007. "The direct and indirect household energy requirements in the Republic of Korea from 1980 to 2000--An input-output analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 2839-2851, May.
    2. Jianping Zha & Ting Tan & Wenwen Yuan & Xiaojie Yang & Ying Zhu, 2020. "Decomposition analysis of tourism CO2 emissions for sustainable development: A case study of China," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 169-186, January.
    3. Lin, Boqiang & Teng, Yuqiang, 2022. "Structural path and decomposition analysis of sectoral carbon emission changes in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(PB).
    4. Defourny, Jacques & Thorbecke, Erik, 1984. "Structural Path Analysis and Multiplier Decomposition within a Social Accounting Matrix Framework," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 94(373), pages 111-136, March.
    5. Luis Robles Teigeiro & Jesús Sanjuán Solís, 2013. "Linkages of the Hotel and Restaurant Industry: An International Comparative Analysis," Tourism Economics, , vol. 19(1), pages 37-62, February.
    6. Erik Dietzenbacher & Bart Los, 1998. "Structural Decomposition Techniques: Sense and Sensitivity," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(4), pages 307-324.
    7. Jindao Chen & Yuhong Wang & Qian Shi & Xu Peng & Juhuan Zheng, 2021. "An international comparison analysis of CO2 emissions in the construction industry," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(4), pages 754-767, July.
    8. Fangming Qin & Jingyan Liu & Gang Li, 2024. "Accounting for tourism carbon emissions: A consumption stripping perspective based on the tourism satellite account," Tourism Economics, , vol. 30(3), pages 633-654, May.
    9. Ang, B. W. & Liu, F. L. & Chew, E. P., 2003. "Perfect decomposition techniques in energy and environmental analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(14), pages 1561-1566, November.
    10. Munday, Max & Turner, Karen & Jones, Calvin, 2013. "Accounting for the carbon associated with regional tourism consumption," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 35-44.
    11. Zhang, Youguo, 2010. "Supply-side structural effect on carbon emissions in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 186-193, January.
    12. Gui, Shusen & Mu, Hailin & Li, Nan, 2014. "Analysis of impact factors on China's CO2 emissions from the view of supply chain paths," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 405-416.
    13. Jianping Zha & Rong Fan & Yao Yao & Lamei He & Yuanyuan Meng, 2021. "Framework for accounting for tourism carbon emissions in China: An industrial linkage perspective," Tourism Economics, , vol. 27(7), pages 1430-1460, November.
    14. Llop, Maria & Ponce-Alifonso, Xavier, 2015. "Identifying the role of final consumption in structural path analysis: An application to water uses," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 203-210.
    15. Jiekuan Zhang & Yan Zhang, 2019. "Exploring the impacts of carbon tax on tourism‐related energy consumption in China," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(3), pages 296-303, May.
    16. Tang, Chengcai & Zhong, Linsheng & Ng, Pin, 2017. "Factors that Influence the Tourism Industry's Carbon Emissions: a Tourism Area Life Cycle Model Perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 704-718.
    17. Su, Bin & Ang, B.W. & Li, Yingzhu, 2019. "Structural path and decomposition analysis of aggregate embodied energy and emission intensities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 345-360.
    18. Sun, Ya-Yen & Cadarso, Maria Angeles & Driml, Sally, 2020. "Tourism carbon footprint inventories: A review of the environmentally extended input-output approach," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    19. Howitt, Oliver J.A. & Revol, Vincent G.N. & Smith, Inga J. & Rodger, Craig J., 2010. "Carbon emissions from international cruise ship passengers' travel to and from New Zealand," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 2552-2560, May.
    20. Sun, Ya-Yen, 2014. "A framework to account for the tourism carbon footprint at island destinations," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 16-27.
    21. Lin, Tzu-Ping, 2010. "Carbon dioxide emissions from transport in Taiwan's national parks," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 285-290.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jianping Zha & Rong Fan & Yao Yao & Lamei He & Yuanyuan Meng, 2021. "Framework for accounting for tourism carbon emissions in China: An industrial linkage perspective," Tourism Economics, , vol. 27(7), pages 1430-1460, November.
    2. Fangming Qin & Jingyan Liu & Gang Li, 2024. "Accounting for tourism carbon emissions: A consumption stripping perspective based on the tourism satellite account," Tourism Economics, , vol. 30(3), pages 633-654, May.
    3. Chao Bi & Jingjing Zeng, 2019. "Nonlinear and Spatial Effects of Tourism on Carbon Emissions in China: A Spatial Econometric Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-17, September.
    4. Lin, Boqiang & Teng, Yuqiang, 2023. "The effect of industrial synergy and division on energy intensity: From the perspective of industrial chain," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    5. Chengcai Tang & Ziwei Wan & Pin Ng & Xiangyi Dai & Qiuxiang Sheng & Da Chen, 2019. "Temporal and Spatial Evolution of Carbon Emissions and Their Influencing Factors for Tourist Attractions at Heritage Tourist Destinations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-19, October.
    6. Chengcai Tang & Linsheng Zhong & Wenjing Fan & Shengkui Cheng, 2015. "Energy consumption and carbon emission for tourism transport in World Heritage Sites: a case of the Wulingyuan area in China," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 39(2), pages 134-150, May.
    7. Lingling Chen & Lin Yi & Rongrong Cai & Hui Yang, 2022. "Spatiotemporal Characteristics of the Correlation among Tourism, CO 2 Emissions, and Economic Growth in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-31, July.
    8. Li, Yingzhu & Su, Bin, 2024. "Identification of the bias in embodied emissions flows and their sources," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    9. Xie, Rui & Wang, Fangfang & Chevallier, Julien & Zhu, Bangzhu & Zhao, Guomei, 2018. "Supply-side structural effects of air pollutant emissions in China: A comparative analysis," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 89-95.
    10. Chen, Liming & Zhao, Yuanyuan & Xie, Rui & Su, Bin & Liu, Yue & Renfei, Xv, 2023. "Embodied energy intensity of global high energy consumption industries: A case study of the construction industry," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 277(C).
    11. Liu, Lan-Cui & Cheng, Lei & Zhao, Lu-Tao & Cao, Ying & Wang, Ce, 2020. "Investigating the significant variation of coal consumption in China in 2002-2017," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    12. Siying Chen & Zhixiong Tan & Maozhi Chen & Jingwei Han, 2024. "Knowledge Mapping of Tourism Footprint: A Bibliometric Review Based on CiteSpace," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(2), pages 21582440241, June.
    13. Teng, Yuqiang & Lin, Boqiang, 2024. "The energy-saving effect of industrial chain synergistic division: Evidence from China's industrial chain," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    14. Wang, H. & Ang, B.W. & Su, Bin, 2017. "Assessing drivers of economy-wide energy use and emissions: IDA versus SDA," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 585-599.
    15. Ilhan Ozturk & Arshian Sharif & Danish Iqbal Godil & Adnan Yousuf & Iram Tahir, 2023. "The Dynamic Nexus Between International Tourism and Environmental Degradation in Top Twenty Tourist Destinations: New Insights From Quantile-on-Quantile Approach," Evaluation Review, , vol. 47(3), pages 532-562, June.
    16. Can Tansel TUGCU & Mert TOPCU, 2018. "The impact of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions on tourism: Does the source of emission matter?," Theoretical and Applied Economics, Asociatia Generala a Economistilor din Romania / Editura Economica, vol. 0(1(614), S), pages 125-136, Spring.
    17. Kim, Yong-Gun & Yoo, Jonghyun & Oh, Wankeun, 2015. "Driving forces of rapid CO2 emissions growth: A case of Korea," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 144-155.
    18. Xiumei Xu & Chao Feng & Phuntsok Droma & Yilan Tan, 2023. "A carbon neutral account framework for the Qomolangma mountaineering tourism area," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(12), pages 14101-14130, December.
    19. Anne Owen & Richard Wood & John Barrett & Andrew Evans, 2016. "Explaining value chain differences in MRIO databases through structural path decomposition," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(2), pages 243-272, June.
    20. Wang, Yizhong & Hang, Ye & Jeong, Sujong & Wang, Qunwei, 2023. "Intersectoral transfers and drivers of net CO2 emissions in China incorporating sources and sinks," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:33:y:2025:i:3:p:3525-3553. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1719 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.