1. The
sector “Tourism”: Introduction
1.1. Background
The
work announced in the Communication from the Commission to the Council and the
European Parliament on “Directions for the EU on Environmental Indicators
and Green National Accounting” (COM (94) 670 final) involved the
development of a number of “infrastructure projects”. This step was
related to the need to create a common basis for the following statistical work
aiming - among other things - at the production of sectoral pressure indicators
(by policy field).
One
of the above infrastructure projects was the
Sectoral
Infrastructure Project on Tourism
.
Istat and Statistics Sweden shared the work programme of this project and
obtained financial contribution from the European Commission, DG XI, in order
to carry out the respective studies.
The
work programme was implemented, with some updating agreed with Eurostat. The
present report is the final report prepared jointly by Istat and Statistics
Sweden as requested.
1.2. The
Fifth Environmental Action Programme in relation to the sector tourism
In
the 5th Environmental Action Programme for the European Communities (5EAP) five
target sectors were addressed as areas of special attention. Tourism was one of
these areas. This choice was motivated principally by the rapid growth of the
sector during the last decade, especially within the Mediterranean region,
giving rise in this way to an increased pressure on the environment.
On
the other hand it was realised in the 5EAP that the influence of tourism on the
environment is not necessarily related directly to the number of visitors. The
practical management of the activities, the type of services provided and the
general awareness of the need of environmental protection in the society can
modify the stress caused by the increased number of people. The complexity of
this sector will also necessarily influence the type of indicators proposed
within the present SIP project.
The
evaluation of the impacts on the environment of the sector tourism is of
interest, not only as a part of the Environmental Pressure Indices Project, but
also for policy makers of the areas of environment and tourism. Therefore the
indicators suggested in this paper may be of interest for institutions such as
tourism and travel organisations or NGOs operating in the environmental sector.
However, as the present project is meant to describe only negative impacts on
the environment, such organisations will also need additional data on tourism.
One
aspect of special importance for the sector Tourism is the overlap with other
sectors covered by the Sectoral Infrastructure Projects (SIP), especially
energy and transport; the waste SIP is also a candidate for overlapping to the
extent that it considers waste generated by the tourist sector. This happens
because most of the environmental impacts related to tourism are identical to
the impacts considered by the SIP projects dealing with the above-mentioned
sectors. If the objective of a study would consist in investigating the effects
of only one of these areas, no problem of overlaps would occur
.
For
the construction of indicators related to more than one area, the situation is
quite the contrary.
A
separation of the influence of the sector tourism from other activities where
energy is used, transportation is required or wastes are created is therefore
necessary. Whenever accounting the pressures coming from the sector tourism
plus those coming from at least one other sector where tourist activities are
involved, then, in order to avoid double
accounting,
the identification and
exclusion
of the share of the pressures attributable to tourism is needed. Corresponding
problems exist, e.g. between the areas of transport and energy. In addition, it
is of vital importance for a realisation of the ESI (European System of
Integrated Economic and Environmental Indices) project that all possible
overlaps will be observed and correctly handled within all the different SIP
groups.
