Carbon Emissions of the Tourism Telecoupling System: Theoretical Framework, Model Specification and Synthesis Effects

The flows of people and material attributed to international tourism exert a major impact on the global environment. Tourism carbon emissions is the main indicator in this context. However, previous studies focused on estimating the emissions of destinations, ignoring the embodied emissions in tourists’ origins and other areas. This study provides a comprehensive framework of a tourism telecoupling system. Taking China’s international tourism as an example, we estimate the carbon emissions of its tourism telecoupling system based on the Tourism Satellite Account and input–output model. We find that (1) the proposal of a tourism telecoupling system provides a new perspective for analyzing the carbon emissions of a tourism system. The sending system (origins) and indirect spillover system (resource suppliers) have been ignored in previous studies. (2) In the telecoupling system of China’s international tourism, the emission reduction effect of the sending system is significant. (3) The direct spillover system (transit) and indirect spillover system’s spatial transfer effects of environment responsibility are remarkable. (4) There is a large carbon trade implied in international tourism. This study makes us pay attention to the carbon emissions of tourists’ origins and the implied carbon trading in tourism flows.