Stronger demand for medium- and long-haul air transport leads to a further increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Neither efficiency improvements nor the use of biofuels will keep pace with the projected growth in aviation. Therefore, curbing the growing demand for air transport has been suggested as another option for a more sustainable development of tourism. However, the political and industry discourse concerning restrictions of air transport is marked by resistance. It is argued that restrictions would impair the development that tourism brings to poor countries. The actual possible impacts of such restrictions of air transport were examined by Paul Peeters and Eke Eijgelaar for the least developed countries (LDCs) as well as non-LDCs. The authors took both international and domestic tourism into consideration and found that the impact on LDCs is ‘neutral’ on average. As far as tourist arrivals are concerned, there are winners as well as losers. "The extent of any losses does not appear to be beyond the scope of possible economic compensation", the authors conclude.
Tourism’s climate mitigation dilemma: Flying between rich and poor countries. By Paul M. Peeters und Eke Eijgelaar. In: Tourism Management 40 (2014). www.cstt.nl/publications/Tourism%27s-climate-mitigation-dilemma:-flying…
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(TW 74, March 2014)