Research On The Spatio-temporal Evolution And Impact Factors Of China's Tourism Industry Carbon Footprint

Different from the discussion of climate issues caused by carbon dioxide emissions from the perspective of production,the discussion of carbon dioxide emissions from the perspective of consumption has attracted widespread attention in the academic community,and this research idea is called “carbon footprint”.This is because the location of carbon emissions formed by production is relatively fixed,while carbon emissions caused by consumption will have a “trajectory” with changes in consumption behavior and location.This is the important explanation and origin of carbon footprint.However,it must be noted that,unlike traditional manufacturing and other production-based industries,tourism is mainly driven by consumption,and the changes in the ecological environment brought about by the tourism carbon footprint have not yet attracted widespread academic attention.This is mainly because although tourism is one of the important driving forces of regional economic development,there are huge differences among regions in China,and its impact on the carbon footprint of tourism is also quite heterogeneous.Therefore,exploring the temporal and spatial evolution of the carbon footprint of the tourism industry in China and its influencing factors have played a positive role in promoting the low-carbon and green transition of the economy in various regions.In general,this paper uses the relevant annual economic indicators of China's tourism industry and its sectors to form a balanced panel data from 2005 to 2017,and conducts the following research: First,this article introduces the tourism consumption stripping coefficient and adopts a top-down method to calculate and analyze the China's tourism industry “total carbon footprint” and “carbon footprint intensity” from a consumption perspective,and discuss the above The temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of the two;Second,based on the stability characteristics of the STIRPAT model,the key influencing factors of the tourism industry's carbon footprint have been fully classified,and the direction of these influencing factors on the carbon footprint has been tested,in an effort to explore the core influencing factors.On this basis,further investigations on regional heterogeneity and departmental heterogeneity were carried out.The relevant research conclusions are as follows:(1)During the sample period,China's tourism industry as a whole and various sector's tourism industry carbon footprint have shown a steady upward trend over time.However,the tourism industry carbon footprint in the eastern,central and western regions differs greatly,showing a spatial evolution characteristic of high east and low west.The total carbon footprint of all sectors of the tourism industry in the eastern region is higher than the corresponding sectors in other regions during the same period.In addition,the study found that the China's tourism industry carbon footprint intensity has shown a slow downward trend over time,and there is an uneven spatial distribution,roughly showing a trend of higher west and lower east.The above-mentioned characteristic facts indicate that the tourism industry in western China may still have a large room for development,which can achieve the purpose of promoting high-quality economic development at a small environmental cost.The tourism industry in the eastern region has already produced increasingly serious environmental problems.The further deepening of regional tourism may be difficult to achieve compatible development of economy and environment.(2)Among the three key factors affecting the carbon footprint of the tourism industry(economic factors,technical factors,and demographic factors): economic development level,service industry development level,tourism energy structure,and regional technological level have significant positive effects on the China's tourism industry carbon footprint.The quality of the population has a negative impact on the carbon footprint of the tourism industry.This fact shows that the carbon dioxide emissions produced by the tourism industry do not completely depend on the economic and technological level of a region,but are determined by the individual behavior and quality of the main tourism participants.In addition,the development level of the service industry has the highest impact on the tourism industry carbon footprint among all influencing factors.This result indicates that as an important supporting sector of the tourism industry,the degree of development of the service industry is the decisive factor affecting the carbon footprint of the tourism industry.(3)The results of the investigation of regional heterogeneity and departmental heterogeneity show that: First,there is significant regional heterogeneity in the energy structure of the tourism industry.For high-income regions,the impact of the tourism energy structure on the carbon footprint of the region is positive.It shows that these regions are over-reliant on energy consumption to promote tourism development,which ultimately leads to an increase in carbon footprint,and this tourism development model may not be sustainable;The energy structure of tourism in low-income areas has a negative impact on the carbon footprint,indicating that the development of tourism in underdeveloped areas is relatively less dependent on energy consumption,and the tourism industry has obvious characteristics of the“primitive ecology”.Second,there is sector heterogeneity in the quality of the population in the tourism industry.The increase in the level of education of participants in the accommodation,catering,wholesale and retail industries will reduce the carbon footprint and thereby alleviate environmental pressure.The impact of population quality in the transportation and social service industries on the carbon footprint is not significant,which may be determined by the characteristics of the sector's employees.