Tourist Transportation Generated Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Emissions in Latvia

Abstract

The tourism has a close relation to the travel and tourism transport. Transport is the source of CO2 emissions. The aim of the research was to inspect the tourist transportation (TT) CO2 emissions caused by the tourist overnight trips, because any similar analysis up until now has not been made. For the determination of CO2 emissions from the TT a hybrid (top-down and bottom up) approach, correlation, regression was used. The author's proposed algorithm for determining CO2 emissions from the TT is useful in the circumstances when there is not sufficient statistical data. In the research of regions of Latvia (NUTS 3) from 2012 to 2017, it was determined that the TT overnight trips indicated a reduction of CO2 emissions of 475 t/year. It is a positive approach in order to reach reduction of CO2 emissions according to the EU criteria for 2030; however, it left a negative impact on the national GDP. Finding solution to this economical problem is the aim of the next researches.