UN counts the cost of tourism on the environment

Oct 1, 2007, 14:35 GMT

Davos, Switzerland - Tourism worldwide is to blame for around 5 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions, the UN World Tourism Organization, UNWTO, said Monday.

Up to 450 delegates from governments, the tourism industry and environmental organizations, including the UN Environment Programme, UNEP, have gathered in Davos in eastern Switzerland for the second international conference to consider the impact of climate change on tourism and how the tourism can be developed in sustainable way.

The tourism industry is often active in the most ecologically sensitive areas, where its impact is more pronounced, said a spokesman for Swiss Secretariat for Economics Affairs.

Tourism played a substantial part in greenhouse emissions yet was sometime the only source of income for some areas of the world.

The conference, which lasts until Wednesday, is aimed at placing tourism on the UN climate change agenda.

According to UNWTO figures tourism was responsible for a 735 billion-dollar turnover in 2006.

At the first conference in 2003 held in Tunisia, governments were called on to promote sustainable tourism and to sign up to international agreements to mitigate climate change like Kyoto.