Climate scientists the University of Sydney Australia say tourism causes 8 per cent of greenhouse gasses. They also say that this figure will continue to increase because the tourism industry is growing. Their study looked the carbon footprint many different areas tourism. It studied the CO2 emissions transport, events, hotels, restaurants and shopping. It even researched the carbon emissions producing souvenirs. The researchers spent 18 months conducting the research. They included the tourist activities of 189 countries. Researcher Dr Arunima Malik said her team analyzed the impact the environment of one million businesses involved in tourism.
The researchers said domestic travel was a bigger cause CO2 emissions than international or business travel. Air travel was the largest part tourism's footprint. The researchers said flying would continue to increase global emissions as more people the world become richer. The countries causing the most harm were the biggest and richest nations. The USA, China, India and Germany had the largest tourism carbon footprints. Their carbon emissions will continue to increase as more their citizens travel. The researchers encouraged holiday-makers and travelers to try and reduce their carbon footprint when vacation so their travel causes less harm to the planet.
