Most tourism research concentrates on accommodation, activities and local transportation, almost ignoring transport between home and tourism destination (tourism O/D transport volumes). Transport research does not fill this gap as it often ignores tourism or uses differend definitions of tourism. As tourism O/D transport volume accounts for most of total tourism environmental impacts, and tourism O/D transport volume is growing faster as the number of tourists, it is important to have better insight into these issues. Without such insights it will be very difficult to reach sustainable development of tourism. In this paper the methods and results of a novel approach to this data problem are described. It is based on the results of the European MuSTT study. By integrating data from the TEN-STAC European transport model and the international tourism database from the World Tourism Organisation (WTO) the MuSTT data model has been developed. Main achievements are adding systematically domestic tourism and transport data like modal split and distances travelled, all for 2000 and with a prognoses for 2020 and in accordance with the internationally accepted WTO tourism definition. The emissions of CO2, GHG (greenhouse gases), NOx and PM (particulates) and the external costs for tourism O/D transport volumes are presented and analysed. It appears that a sustainabel development of tourism cannot be induced without reliable information on air transport and intercontinental travel, both causing disproportionate shares of the environmental problems. (Author/publisher)
Abstract