| In recent years, the impacts of the tourism industry on the environment have become widely acknowledged. As tourism is predicted to continue growing in the next decade, there is an urgent need for the tourism sector to embrace sustainability principles in order that tourists may continue travelling, while placing minimal impacts on the natural environment. Although there is much debate over the concepts of sustainability and how it is to be measured, the Ecological Footprint has recently been proposed as a key indicator of sustainable tourism, due to its abilities to quantify the amount of land needed for tourism activities, and enable comparisons between tourism components through its global, standardized measurements.;The findings of this study indicate that backpacker tourism is substantially more sustainable than some other forms of international travel. However, it was also found that backpacker tourism, according to ecological footprint concepts, was not sustainable as an activity, since the average footprint was substantially more than the fair earth share value; a number considered to be the sustainable baseline. In addition, backpacker ecological footprints were generally considerably higher than the average footprints generated by residents in respondents' home countries. Through individually analyzing the tourism components, this study determined that transportation accounted for the largest average contribution (77%) to respondents' ecological footprints. As most backpackers were international travellers, the transportation impacts were often a result of flight emissions and although this study inquired into sustainable flight options, it is clear that there is currently no perfect solution for decreasing flight impacts. As a result, reducing the ecological footprint of backpacker tourism to a sustainable level currently appears to be for the most part, impossible.;This study acknowledged that ceasing international tourism due to its environmental impacts would be unrealistic and certainly damaging to countries and areas that rely heavily on backpacker, or general tourism revenues. As such, the study concludes with several policy recommendations for those involved in backpacker tourism, which may increase the sustainability of ecological footprint components. Since money and time were considered to be a major barrier in incorporating environmental initiatives into hostel practices, the recommendations are relatively low maintenance and require little financial investment. Although their implementation alone will not decrease backpacker ecological footprints by a substantial amount, they will at least contribute to the increased environmental sustainability of backpacker tourism.;In this study, the ecological footprint was adapted to a tourism context, in order to measure the sustainability of backpacker tourism. As backpackers, or hostel tourists, tend to travel on low budgets and use fewer resources than the average tourist, it has been speculated that backpacker tourism is more environmentally friendly than some other forms of travel. This study was therefore conducted in an attempt to determine the validity of this belief. For the purpose of the study, surveys were conducted with 123 backpackers and hostel tourists staying at 8 hostels located throughout Ontario and Quebec. Information was collected on respondents' food, activity and transportation behaviours. In addition, hostels were requested to provide information on accommodation aspects such as occupancy rates, property sizes and energy usage, in addition to waste management routines and information. This data was inputted into the ecological footprint calculator to determine the average ecological footprints of backpacker tourists in Ontario and Quebec, and the relationship between the ecological footprint, demographics and travelling behaviours. In addition to the data collected for ecological footprint calculations, information was also requested from hostels and respondents on the frequency of their environmental behaviours and their general level of environmental concern. The analysis of this information provided an indication of the current 'green status' of backpacker tourism and where improvements could be made in environmental practices. |
