Environmental and energy-related challenges to sustainable tourism in the United States and China

This article examines the relationship between tourism, energy, and environment. This article approaches tourism as a complex adaptive system composed of consumers, transportation providers, travel intermediaries, and destinations composed of multiple tourism-related companies and other stakeholder groups. Environmental and energy-related challenges of components to the system are examined as well as various units – the system as a whole, enterprises and individuals – within the system. A total of 92 peer-reviewed articles were studied that address ‘energy’ and ‘tourism’ published between 1974 and 2011. Also addressed are the impacts of social and cultural differences between the United States and China concerning responses to environmental and energy-related challenges. This article concludes with recommendations for addressing the challenges associated with such challenges, including building system capacity, technology development and adoption, support of individual behavior change, increasing understanding of the trade-offs and interactions within the system, and adoption of multidisciplinary approaches to these challenges within the tourism system.     

Sustainable tourism for remote atolls in the Pacific

SUMMARY

Coral atolls, as visitor destinations, have received little attention in the literature of tourism on mid-oceanic islands. However, the current trend of nature-based tourism, which involves travelling to relatively remote and undisturbed places, makes the atolls a desirable destination. This paper explores ways of how appropriate tourism can be introduced to atoll society within the context of traditional resource uses and the application of intermediate technologies. With the acceptance of a code of ethics for tourist behaviour and technologies aimed at reducing dependency of foreign imports, atoll tourism could become a viable economic alternative to the continued over-exploitation of marine resources.     

Slope,aspect and climate: Spatially explicit and implicit models of topographic microclimate in chalk grassland

The slope and aspect of a vegetated surface strongly affects the amount of solar radiation intercepted by that surface. Solar radiation is the dominant component of the surface energy balance and influences ecologically critical factors of microclimate, including near-surface temperatures, evaporative demand and soil moisture content. It also determines the exposure of vegetation to photosynthetically active and ultra-violet wavelengths. Spatial variation in slope and aspect is therefore a key determinant of vegetation pattern, species distribution and ecosystem processes in many environments. Slope and aspect angle may vary considerably over distances of a few metres, and fine-scale species’ distribution patterns frequently follow these topographic patterns. The availability of suitable microclimate at such scales may be critical for the response of species distributions to climatic change at much larger spatial scales. However, quantifying the relevant microclimatic gradients is not straightforward, as the potential variation in solar radiation flux under clear-sky conditions is modified by local and regional variations in cloud cover, and interacts with long-wave radiation exchange, local meteorology and surface characteristics.     

城市旅游环境承载力及其旅游资源空间管理

UTECC主要充当控制旅游需求的功能。UTECC的降低最明显的后果就是损害了城市的生态环境质量,紧接着会导致旅游需求的降低。为了实现城市旅游可持续发展,城市的旅游需求不能超过旅游环境承载力。通常对城市旅游资源过度需求的空间管理方法主要有5种。本文在AlanCollins(1999年)研究的基础上提出了城市旅游环境承载力的概念,并借助城市旅游资源过度需求管理方面的理论对如何使用及防止滥用城市旅游环境承载力作了初步研究。     

The impact of global warming on winter tourism and skiing: a regionalised model for Austrian snow conditions

Possible climate change will modify snow-cover depth and change the characteristics of winter tourism and skiing districts. Our model describes seasonal snow-cover depth related to altitude in six Alpine climate regions as the best fit of all snow stations. Data cover 30 winter seasons (November to April values) from 1965 to 1995. We modified the data according to a scenario of temperature and precipitation change (2 °C warming, no precipitation change) and achieve a new simulated snow-cover depth. The indicators MARP (mean altitude of resident population) and MASPSL (mean altitude of starting point of ski lifts) serve as references for “critical altitudes” of Austrian districts. A warming implies a reduction of snow in all districts, but the loss is overproportional in lower altitudes. The direction of economic impacts is clear – income losses and adaptation costs – but magnitude and time frames remain uncertain. Received: 24 February 1999 · Accepted: 15 May 1999     

Sustainable Tourism and the Touristic Ecological Footprint

There is growing interest in ecological footprint analysis in aiding our understanding of societal demands upon the biosphere. Increasingly, attention is being focused on potential new applications of the technique. Tourism is one of the world's largest industries and can play a major part in encouraging more consumerist lifestyles. It is now widely accepted that tourism development may have profound impacts on local environments, and that, consequently, the sustainable development of tourism at destination areas is an important issue. However, sustainable tourism studies rarely look beyond the destination area, and there has been no substantive recognition of the wider ecological footprint of tourism activities. This paper attempts to connect, conceptually, the realms of sustainable tourism and ecological footprint thinking. In so doing, various conceptualisations of the 'touristic ecological footprint' (TEF) are suggested, along with some potential applications. It is argued that primary research should focus on calculating the touristic ecological footprint associated with individual tourism products, throughout the product's life-cycle. As well as bringing another dimension to our understanding of tourism's actual ecological demand, it is also argued that the concept of the touristic ecological footprint may be used to clarify theoretical aspects of the sustainable tourism debate, helping to rejuvenate this debate in the process.     

秦皇岛市50年气候变化与可持续发展战略研究

秦皇岛市50年来气候变暖变干，年平均气温提高2．3℃，≥10℃年积温增加11．4％，无霜期延长22天，但年平均降水量却减少12．6％。这对农业和工业的影响弊大于利，对旅游业的影响则有利有弊。为此应趋利避害，加强水资源的开源节流，发展节水经济和循环经济，发展休闲度假旅游，延长旺季。     

出境旅游热的"冷"思考——从我国出境旅游者不文明行为谈起

近年来,我国出境旅游出现了一股热潮,社会给予了极大的关注。但是,随着出境旅游者人数的日益增多,他们在旅外途中做出“不文明”行为的现象也越来越频繁。对于这些“不文明”行为给我国带来的负面影响,旅游学界讨论得很少,业界似乎也没有给予足够的重视。在梳理此类行为表象的基础上,由现象到本质初步探讨了这些“不文明”行为可能造成的负面影响,并据此提出了一些对策建议。     

发展中国工业旅游的思考

工业旅游在中国正逐渐兴起,工业已成为旅游开发的对象之一。本文阐述了工业旅游这一新概念,系统总结了工业旅游资源的特点,并探讨了我国工业旅游的基本模式及其发展前景展望     

三种综合评价数学模型优选旅游区发展影响因素比较

以优选旅游区发展影响因素为例,阐明3种综合评价数学模型的特点及选择数学模型的原则,同时介绍了如何加强综合评价的科学性和合理性。