ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on operators, and discusses their potential to contribute to low-carbon tourism through new approaches to packaging, product development, and marketing. The risk is that certain tourism products could become nonviable from an emissions point of view, both because they may become unacceptable for environmentally aware travellers or more expensive as a result of mitigation policies such as those planned within the framework of the European Union Emission Trading System. Globally, serious action to achieve sustainable tourism, measurable with regard to climate change in terms of declining absolute emission levels, appears nonexistent. The ‘ever increasing choice’ refl ects the expansion of packages to include the whole world, with mass destinations being created even in remote locations. The largest contribution to reducing emissions from tourism can thus be achieved by focusing on these trips, indicating a role for tour operators in creating demand for less distant destinations.
