The ecological footprint of international tourists in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Applied Science in Natural Resource Management at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
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Date
2009
DOI
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Massey University
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Abstract
Ecological Footprint Analysis (EFA) is a technique that was first developed by
Wackernagel as a Ph.D. thesis in 1994, then further developed in combination with
Rees and published (Rees & Wackernagel, 1995). EFA is employed in this study to
assess the resource utilisation of international tourists visiting New Zealand. Tourism is
one of the fastest growing industries in the world and the ecological sustainability of
tourism is becoming more important term for managing tourism. This is becoming
increasingly important with tourism identified as particularly as a significant contributor
to carbon emissions.
This study uses EFA to assess whether international tourists visiting New Zealand
behave in a sustainable manner. Tourists are surveyed and classed into high, mid and
low budget tourist types to gain a detailed account of their behaviour with particular
reference to food, accommodation, transport, services, activities attractions, goods and
waste. The EFA helps to identify areas of a tourist’s trip that have the greatest impact on
the environment, thereby identifying ways to improve the sustainability of tourism in
New Zealand. It was found that tourists generally consume more whilst on holiday than
they do at home and more than New Zealand residents. The results show that
international tourists’ behaviour is sustainable and New Zealand has the ecological
carrying capacity to allow the number of international tourists to increase without
incurring any significant ecological costs to the country.
It was found that there is a positive relationship between ‘high’ income tourists and
their ecological footprint and that independent travellers have a larger ecological
footprint than the package travellers; however, package travellers have a larger food and
housing ecological footprint than independent travellers. The energy footprint was the
largest out of the six land types of a tourist’s ecological footprint. Food is the
consumption category that is the largest contributor to a tourist’s ecological footprint.
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Keywords
Ecological footprint analysis, Tourism, Environmental impact