Exploring the Relationship Between Tourism and Concern for the Global Natural Environment: a Case Study of Wellington Residents

Climate change has been a concern for well over thirty years, but there has been limited research within the field of tourism with respect to climate change. In the last few years, there have been changes in the public perception of climate change, and an increasing awareness of the importance of addressing the problems that the world may face as a result of climate change. At current, the GHG emissions attributable to tourism are in the range of 4-6% of total global emissions, and rising. People are travelling ever more frequent, and to destinations far away from their residence. The world cannot sustain these trends, and thus research is needed to identify means to change tourism behaviours and reduce the impact of tourism on the global natural environment. This study aimed to explore the relationship between concern for the environment and tourism by taking recent holiday behaviours of Wellington residents into account. 308 residents returned useable questionnaires from the household surveys which were distributed to Wellington dwellings in July and August 2009. The study took the following steps to reach its aim: Firstly, recent holiday behaviours among Wellington residents were accounted for, including participation in leisure travel, distances travelled, and transport modes and accommodation used. Minimum emissions of CO2-E emissions caused by transportation to and from the main destination on the two most recent holidays taken by the respondents were estimated. Also, factors influencing choice of destination, transportation and accommodation were explored in relation to concern for the environment. Secondly, residents' perception of the significance of impact that climate change will have on their lives was explored. It was established that most people in the sample think that climate change will affect their lives to some extent. Thirdly, frequency of participation in carbon offsetting schemes and purchase of ecolabeled tourism products was explored to contribute to the knowledge about consumer awareness and attitudes towards tourism ecolabels and carbon offsetting schemes. Awareness and consumption was found to be low among the respondents. Fourthly, the study explored people's level of concern for the global natural environment, by investigating opinions held by the respondents about tourism and climate change and the impact of their holiday behaviours. Concern was established among the respondents. Concern for the environment was then explored in relation to holiday behaviours to establish whether environmental concern had an influence on the behaviours displayed by the respondents. No such relationship was found, and it was concluded that concern for the environment does not have an influence on people's behaviours. Lastly, preferred policy options were investigated. The people in the sample preferred voluntary policy measures, however very few are currently making use of the voluntary initiatives that are available to the public. The study concludes by highlighting the fact that more strict measures are needed in order to change current behaviours, seeing as concern for the environment does not affect the tourism behaviours of the people included in the sample.