Tourism alert on emissions

Research showing greenhouse gas emissions from air travel are higher than first thought could hurt the lucrative tourist market.

International tourism is a huge money spinner for New Zealand, earning $8.3 billion in the year ended March 2006.

"As a country we need to think seriously hard and come up with meaningful offsetting strategies if tourism is to remain a cornerstone of the New Zealand economy," Otago University researcher Craig Rodger said.

Dr Rodger and co-researcher Inga Smith have issued a study adding up the contribution of international visitors' air travel to New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions. Emissions from international aviation do not yet come under the Kyoto protocol, but might be included in the future.

"Our calculations show that in 2005, the CO2-equivalent emissions from the 2.4 million international visitors' return air flights was nearly 7.9 million tonnes – roughly the same as the emissions from all the country's coal, gas and oil-fired power generation." That equates to 10 per cent of the country's Kyoto-liable greenhouse gas emissions for 2005 – much higher than the usually quoted world average of 3.5 per cent.

"Awareness of the environmental impact of long-haul flights is increasingly influencing tourists' destination decisions. As tourism is New Zealand's No 1 export earner, these findings are cause for some concern," Dr Rodger said.

Tourism expert David Duval said he doubted "the average family in Sussex" would choose to skip a holiday in New Zealand because of environmental concerns.

"But the message only needs to take hold in a few key markets and you have a problem."

Dr Duval said Norway recently had posters in the London Underground promoting itself as like New Zealand only closer.

Tourism Ministry acting policy manager Robyn Henderson said the study showed the importance of reducing carbon emissions in the tourism sector. The New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2015, issued late last year, focused on reducing emissions and better managing the environment, she said.

Last month, a Tourism New Zealand survey found 20 per cent of British people tried not to travel long distances by air, because of the effect on the environment.

The Otago researchers evaluated the feasibility of potential measures to offset the emissions to make the visitors' travel carbon- neutral – and found most were not practical. "Unfortunately, none of the scenarios currently appear to be economically or technically feasible," Dr Smith said.

The installation of 4250 one- megawatt wind turbines to replace fossil fuel-based power generation would offset the visitors' emissions, but at a cost of at least $10 billion, or $4150 per visitor, she said.

Replacing current fossil-fuel generation with more efficient combined-cycle gas-turbine plants would require eight new generating plants. Regenerating 26,000 square kilometres of bush would offset emissions, but would require an area the size of 15 Stewart Islands. And balancing the air travel by cutting use of land transport would mean taking almost two-thirds of all New Zealand's vehicles off the road.

- © Fairfax NZ News