The Input–Output Method for Calculating the Carbon Footprint of Tourism: An Application to the Spanish Tourism Industry

The tourism sector is one of the most affected by COVID-19 pandemic. The global shutting down of non-essential sectors and the maintained global mobility restrictions have led to the industry’s partial closure worldwide. Tourism could play a leading role as the driver for achieving the sustainable development goals (SDG) and as an engine of wealth generation and cultural preservation. However, the negative impacts on the environment have to be considered when shaping the forthcoming and refurbished post-pandemic tourism industry of the future. In this chapter, we propose an environmentally extended input–output model to estimate the tourism carbon footprint to assess the sustainability of the tourism industry and applied it to tourism in Spain. This modelling allows for identifying direct and indirect emissions hot spots along the complex and intricate global value chains. The main results show how while Spain’s tourism contribution to GDP accounts for 12.3%, its carbon footprint accounts for 15% of the Spanish total emissions, which is above the global average (8%). In global terms, 29% of the total carbon footprint is imported, so it is, directly or indirectly, embodied in the global production chains. It is concentrated in some close European Union countries, China, BRIIAT, and the United States. Sectorally, the Spanish tourism carbon footprint is concentrated in some sectors where emissions are mostly domestic (air transport, land transport, or retail trade).