2. Description
of the sector
2.1. Definition
of tourism
For
the purpose of the collection of tourism statistics, a visitor is described as:
“any person travelling, for less than a specified amount of time, to a
place other than that of his usual environment and the main purpose of whose
visit is other than the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the
place visited“. A tourist is then defined as “a visitor who stays
at least one night in the place visited“ (Eurostat, 1992).This definition
does not distinguish between business travel, visits to friends and relatives,
pilgrimage, travelling to secondary homes and other types of leisure travels.
With the exception of journeys to secondary homes, a distinction between these
different categories is however recommended as a classification in travel
surveys by WTO (1992). These groups are also generally distinguished in such
surveys for various countries.
In
scientific literature tourism is often restricted to the last, travelling for
leisure purposes, (Cohen, 1981; Nash, 1981; Frändberg, 1996). This also
appears to be in agreement with the common understanding of the concept of
tourism. On the other hand, for the present study, an ideal delimitation of the
sector should rather cover all the different types of travels mentioned above
(including journeys to secondary homes). This is so because environmental
pressures are in most cases very similar, irrespective of the main objectives
of the journeys.
For
some problem areas, an evaluation of the impacts from all the different types
of travelling should be possible. For example, impacts caused by transport will
be covered by the SIP transport project. A separation of those effects caused
by all categories of tourism travel, could be realised, using existing data
from travel habit surveys.
For
other topic areas, it will be much more difficult to cover the impacts of all
groups of travellers and also to distinguish between those categories for which
data are available. This is true, e.g., for effects on land and water
resources, impacts on biodiversity and pressures on the urban environment. For
such areas, data on the specific influence will hardly be available, neither
for people visiting friends and relatives nor for those going to secondary
homes. In statistical presentations, these effects will appear as part of the
household sector - not covered by the present project.
The
wording of the definition used for tourism statistics, initially mentioned
above, could be taken as including all different categories of tourism. Thus,
even if this definition is wider than the one which has been used within some
scientific fields, this description will be used also in the present study. It
is important, however, to observe and comment upon such areas where data are
available only for a part of the total field of tourism.
2.2. Main
pressures from the tourism sector on each policy field
Air
Pollution
Air
pollutants have many different environmental effects, e.g., on acidification
and eutrophication of land and water, on human health, vegetation and corrosion
of buildings (Commission of the European Communities, 1992; Petersen and
Weizsäcker, 1993). Emissions to air caused by tourism depend primarily on
the amounts of fossil fuel used for tourism transport and on the amounts used
for other types of energy conversions for leisure activities. As in several
other cases, the impacts caused by tourism cannot be directly separated from
influences of other sectors, e.g. total transport activities and energy use by
the commercial sector.
All
indicators on air pollution caused by tourism should also be relevant either
for the transport or for the energy sector. For this reason there would be no
need to calculate indicators especially for tourism for the present project. In
fact, it is of interest for the sector tourism itself, or for planning purposes
in a wider context, to have an estimate
of
the part of air pollution directly dependent on tourism. Methods to separate
the impacts of tourism from the influence of other sectors have therefore been
discussed in later sections of this report.
Climate
Change
The
most important of the so called greenhouse gases are CH
4,
CO
2,
N
2O
and CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons, freons) (EEA, 1996a). Other substances may also
have some influence, although they have been assigned a lower overall ranking
value by the SAG experts (scientific advisory groups) (Jesinghaus, 1996). Main
sources of these gases are e.g. burning of fossil fuels, for transport, heating
or other purposes, some industrial processes and use of certain equipment, e.g.
refrigerators and air condition apparatuses.
Tourism
is responsible for part of these emissions, especially in the case of transport
activities (Frändberg, 1996; Commission of the European Communities,
1992). Additional energy use (causing release of greenhouse gases) is also
needed for e.g. heating of hotels, restaurants and other buildings, for outside
illumination, use of ski lifts, motorboats, motorcycles and other leisure
equipment. Sources of CFCs emissions are air conditioning and refrigerators,
which may be present in hotel rooms,
restaurants,
etc
.
Loss
of Biodiversity
Loss
of biodiversity is generally specified as meaning: loss of genetic resources,
loss of species diversity and loss of landscape diversity (biotopes). The last
item, diversity among biotopes, is generally believed to determine the possible
degree of diversity on the other levels. This means that land use and changes
of land cover will be of special importance for this topic (Kupchella and
Hyland, 1993; Swedish Environment Protection Agency, 1994).
From
the overall ranking list of indicators, selected by the SAG, it is clear that
loss of certain types of land areas are regarded as major threats to
biodiversity (Jesinghaus, 1996). As examples can be mentioned protected areas,
natural forest and rangeland areas, wetlands and less intensively cultivated
agricultural areas. Also fragmentation of such areas, some types of emissions
and loss of riverbanks through artificialisations are mentioned as possible
indicators.
Tourism
is certainly responsible for some of the problems identified within this
environment topic. Loss of natural or semi-natural forests and change in
traditional land-use practice may occur because of
e.g.
constructions of hotels, camping sites, summer houses, ski pists, theme parks,
golf courses etc. Increased traffic caused by tourism will increase air
pollution and may also lead to fragmentation of landscape by new roads,
railroads and airports (Commission of the European Communities, 1992). Too many
visitors in protected areas may damage flora and fauna, as hunting and fishing
may do in other vulnerable although not protected areas.
Marine
Environment and Coastal Zones
The
environmental problems encountered within this area are relevant for some of
the other topics too: Loss of biodiversity, Dispersion of Toxic Substances and
Resource depletion. This
appears
clearly from the SAG list of indicators, which includes e.g.: Eutrophication,
Priority Habitat Loss, Wetland Loss and Heavy Metal Discharges. Furthermore
this is the only area, within the present project, where impacts directly
linked to the sector tourism have been selected as a priority indicator. The
functions and site specific problems of coastal resorts have been discussed
e.g. by Pearce (1995).
As
for some other environmental problem areas, the main pressures generated by the
sector tourism concern land use and water use. As examples, the increased
discharge of sewage water with eutrophicating substances (BOD, nitrogen and
phosphorus) caused by tourism and changes of vulnerable coastline areas caused
by the construction of hotels, pleasure ports, water based theme parks or
hotels and restaurants on beach areas can be mentioned (EEA, 1995).
Depending
on the region or area considered, the impacts of tourism are much more variable
than those coming from other sectors. The influence of temporary visitors in a
big city can be insignificant in relation to industrial impacts, the effects
caused by transport or influence of the residential population. For coastal
zones without major industrial activities and with a high proportion of
tourists in relation to the residents, the impacts of tourism can be
substantial. Therefore, the possibilities to regionalize the data will be the
key factor to arrive at a reliable description of the impacts of tourism.
Ozone
Layer Depletion
The
principal causes of the destruction of the ozone layer have been identified as
being CFCs and halons (bromofluorocarbons), of which some types are considered
to be more active than others (Puolamaa et al. 1996; EEA, 1995a). Also NO
x
and other gases emitted directly into the stratosphere by aeroplanes influence
this destruction.
As
in the case of climate change, the impacts of tourism are mainly related to
transport activities. Emissions of CFCs from refrigerators and air conditioning
equipment may also have an influence. However, the part attributable to tourism
in relation to the use of this type of equipment has not yet been estimated.
Resource
Depletion
There
are three areas of concern, within this topic, where tourism may have special
impacts. These areas are: use of energy (especially fossil fuels), water use
and land use (Commission of the European Communities, 1992). All three areas
appear among the priority indicators selected by the SAG. As in many previous
cases it will not be easy to separate the influence of the tourist activities
from other factors, such as transport, energy and water use by the residential
population.
Examples
of energy use within the sector tourism have already been mentioned above,
under the section Climate Change. In the case of land use the indicator
selected by the SAG concerns territory occupied by urbanisation and
infrastructure. The importance of a regional breakdown of the indicators is
very clear in the case of water use, as shortage of water resources is not a
problem for all regions within the countries (EEA, 1997). The same is true for
land use, as all types of land cover are not equally valuable, neither from an
economic nor from a biodiversity or recreational point of view.
Dispersion
of Toxic Substances
Some
indicators selected by the SAG on Dispersion of Toxic Substances will be
influenced also by tourist activities (e.g. in the case of emissions of heavy
metals to air): lead is released with exhaust-gases from cars (Commission of
the European Communities, 1992), while mercury, cadmium and dioxins may be
released from municipal wastes, part of which may come from visitors in the
region. However, with the exception of lead from tourism transportation, these
emissions will not be much different from those resulting from the activities
of the same individuals in their home areas. Therefore, no direct impacts of
tourism within this topic area have been identified. Emissions of lead are
covered by the transport sector.
Urban
Environmental Problems
Most
of the indicators selected by the SAG for this area appear also within other
topic areas. The principal difference is that the regions for which data should
be available are cities or other purposely delimited urban areas. With an
increase in transport activities caused by the arrival of an increased number
of tourists, there will be more emissions of noise and air pollutants within
the region (Petersen and Weizsäcker, 1993). There may also be problems
with wastes, land use and water supply.
As
for most other topics, it is not easy to separate the impacts caused by
tourists from the influence of the residential population. Therefore indirect
methods for estimating the relative importance of the pressure coming from
tourist activities need to be developed.
Waste
With
a growing number of visitors the amount of municipal wastes within a region
increases. This influences the costs of waste treatment and the necessary
capacity of the treatment facilities. Even if there is no change in the total
amount of wastes produced within the whole EU area, the regional impacts caused
by tourism may be considerable. Therefore the proportion of municipal wastes
directly caused by tourists should be an indicator of direct interest to local
or regional authorities.
Water
Pollution and Water Resources
There
are many similarities between the effects on the marine coastline areas and the
impacts on inland water resources caused by tourist activities. This is true
e.g. for the SAG indicators on emissions of nutrients, organic matter and heavy
metals. An additional aspect for this area is the groundwater abstraction and
water use. The indicator “Water use per capita“ is identical to one
of the priority indicators identified in the policy field Resource Depletion.
Non-sustainable
use of water, giving rise to sinking ground water levels, appears in many
European cities (EEA, 1997). But there is a big variation between different
regions. Therefore the regional presentation of the data should be carefully
considered. There is also an interrelation between water quality and available
water quantity. Both aspects are influenced by the number of inhabitants, which
is substantially increased by tourists during the dry and hot months of the year.
The
number of visitors does influence the total consumption of water as well as the
discharges of organic matters and nutrients with sewage water. As in several
other cases, the relative importance of this influence from tourism will depend
on the ratio between residents and visitors within well defined areas. For
discharges of sewage water, the total amounts as well as the treatment
capacities available in the sites within the same drainage basins are of
special significance.
2.3. Delimitation
of the sector in the SIP projects
Unlike
other SIP areas, tourism is not treated as a sector in the statistical
classification of economic activities, NACE. This means that a "translation" of
the sector tourism, as defined in the 5EAP, into activities within the NACE
system is an important, even if not a straightforward, step to take. In
addition to that, it has to be mentioned that the impacts of the sector tourism
depend also on activities outside the formal classification system of NACE. The
influence on the environment of, e.g., holiday travels by private cars, changes
of area occupied by privately owned secondary houses or trips with an
increasing number of privately owned pleasure boats could be considerable, even
if there are few data that can confirm this.
In
some groups or classes of NACE activities related to the sector tourism can be
identified. A specification of activities related to tourism from the supply
side has already been published by Istat (1991). A presentation of this list
with a few additions is shown in Annex 1. Among the groups or classes of NACE
considered, there are many that can not be taken as being altogether
a
part of tourism, since they are also used by the local population. Transport is
necessary for tourism, but all types of transportation are not devoted to
tourist activities, not even when reduced to passenger transport. What seems to
be important, from the point of view of the present study, is that such groups
or classes can include activities of special interest for the sector tourism.
The
graphic framework presented below
is
intended to reflect the complexity of the matter, as briefly discussed above,
and aims to support a correct consideration of the different aspects involved.
Starting from the idea that the main human activities related to tourism and
causing environmental pressures have to be taken into account, a preliminary
distinction is made between production activities considered by NACE and
activities not considered in that classification and carried out by the
tourists themselves. Among these latter activities there are, in principle,
consumption activities which are the counterpart of the relevant production
activities listed within the NACE classification (the environmental pressures
linked to them are already shown in the left hand part of the figure). The
environmental pressures which are to be taken into account from the tourist
activities side seem to be, therefore, only those related to informal
activities, that is activities carried out by tourists on their own, outside
the formal market. All the activities considered can be looked at as placed at
three main levels: tourist transportation, tourist accommodation and other
economic or informal activities carried out for tourism purposes. Given the
fact that a clear picture of the activities involved is defined, it is
necessary to identify the relevant processes, in order to identify the
environmental pressures entailed by those activities; these processes are
supposed to be expressed in terms of statistical variables related to
production and consumption activities, either within the market or informal.
The environmental pressures are supposed to be expressed in terms of material
flows and land use. In the bottom part of the graphic framework, possible
overlaps with other sectors investigated in the different SIP projects and the
need of co-operation with these latter are taken into account.
Figure
1. Delimitation and schematic representation of environmental pressures caused
by tourism
Having
said the above with reference to substantive issues, the scope of statistical
information to be considered in terms of basic data has to be defined taking
into account that the focus of interest for the present project is not tourism
as such, but tourism as a factor with impacts on the environment. Statistics
which are important from the point of view of the sector tourism, e. g., number
of employees at hotels and similar establishments, number of tour operators or
statistics on tourism expenditures, are apparently of little interest from the
environmental point of view. On the other hand, data which apparently have
nothing to do with tourism, e.g., number of inhabitants within certain regions,
amounts of municipal wastes or use of fossil fuels for heating, may be of
special interest for the present purpose. With respect to the proposed
indicators, methods of calculation could be practised using such statistics and
also data which may be estimated within other SIP projects, as, e. g.,
emissions of air pollutants or area occupied by transportation networks.
2.4. Overlaps
with other SIP projects
As
has already been indicated, tourism can be seen as a set of phenomena, which
have in very few cases been distinguished as separate entities, but have
generally been merged with similar activities into different groups and
sub-groups within NACE. In addition to this, an unknown part of tourism does
not belong to NACE system (use of private secondary houses etc.). This means
that within existing statistics of interest from an environmental point of
view, the part directly related to tourism cannot be separated.
Therefore,
to be able to use already existing data for the calculation of indicators
describing the impacts of tourism, it is vital to find methods to distinguish -
indirectly - the part related to tourism. With this in mind, some different
methods of calculation have been proposed within the indicator part of this
project, e.g. estimations of the number of passenger-km travelled by tourists
in relation to all travellers, or the part of the number of people within an
area that consists of tourists.
Such
calculations may in a second step make it possible to evaluate the part played
by tourism in relation to certain environmental problems, e.g., emissions of
air pollutants, discharge of sewage water or use of energy resources within a
specified area. However, to be able to do this, it is essential that some of
the statistics investigated within other SIP basic data groups, can be
subdivided into the groups necessary for these calculations.
A
certain amount of overlap of data research with other SIP projects is probably
unavoidable. This is so because it cannot be expected that the methods used by
the tourism project should be directly understood and accepted by researchers
engaged within other areas. However, to the extent that the ideas of the SIP
tourism group are clarified by examples of the type of statistics needed, the
other SIP groups may be able to give direct information about existing data.
The
short lists related to transport and energy statistics in Table 1 (Section 4)
of the present report, should be regarded as such a starting point. From the
point of view of tourism, additional information about the existence of
regional data on energy use and use of fossil fuels is important. From the SIP
transport group, the existence of data on air emissions caused by different
types of transport, could be an important input to the SIP tourism project.
Amounts of municipal wastes on a detailed regional level is another information
required for calculations proposed within the SIP tourism study, in this case
from the SIP waste group.
To
avoid duplication of work, a co-operation between the different SIP basic data
groups is necessary. The tourism project very much depends on data from at
least three other SIP groups, but these groups do not necessarily have to look
for the type of subdivisions required by the tourism group. What is needed is
assistance from the other groups with the identification of some types of
statistics, considered to be of major importance for the tourism indicators.
Without this assistance, the investigation of basic data within SIP tourism
would have to include research also on basic data within the transport, energy
and waste sectors.
Additionally,
it has to be stressed that, whenever one would aim at calculating indices for
the ten environmental policy areas by using the sectorial pressure indicators,
the aggregation of these indicators would not be easy. In this case, problems
of double accounting would arise: for example, it can happen when accounting
both the air emissions indicator of the sector tourism and the air emissions
indicator of the sector transport, which usually includes also the transport
activities due to tourism reasons. Also in this respect, a clear description of
the methods and data used by each SIP for the estimation of the indicators is
essential.
