Research on the Development of Carbon Neutral Sports Tourism

Industry

Zixian Zhang

1, a

, Youliang Xu

2, b

and Xiangying Wang

1, c

School of Physical Education, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, Shandong, China

School of Physical Education and Health, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China

Keywords: Carbon Neutral, Carbon Neutral Sports Tourism, Sports Tourism, Sports Industry.

Abstract:

In 2020, President Xi Jinping proposed in the general debate of the 75th session of the United Nations General

Assembly that China will reach the peak of carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060,

which provides an important strategic guideline for China to build a carbon neutral country. The trend of

developing "carbon neutral tourism" in China is unstoppable, so "carbon neutral sports tourism", which is an

important branch of "carbon neutral tourism", will also usher in a great opportunity for vigorous development.

It is a new force in the sports tourism industry to "adjust the structure and maintain growth". The promotion

of carbon-neutral sports tourism is in line with China's national conditions, and should adhere to the pilot

project before promotion; adhere to the importance of creativity, turning abstract into concrete; adhere to the

promotion of carbon neutral ways of diversification; adhere to the full excavation and development of carbon

neutral sports tourism characteristics.

1 INTRODUCTION

The massive emission of greenhouse gases

represented by CO2 is considered to be the main

cause of global warming, which is the most serious

non-traditional security issue humanity is facing and

poses a serious threat to the survival and development

of human society. Since the first industrial revolution,

the massive burning of fossil fuels and the destruction

of forests have brought about rapid economic and

social development, but also global environmental

problems such as the massive emission of CO2 and

other greenhouse gases. 2020, President Xi Jinping

proposed in the general debate of the 75th session of

the UN General Assembly that China will achieve

peak carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality

by 2060. This provides an important strategic

guideline for China to build a carbon-neutral country

(Liao, 2011).

Human tourism activities are also responsible for

carbon neutrality (Liu, 2021). With the continuous

advancement of industrial revolution and the rapid

development of urbanization of human society, sports

tourism has emerged out of the need of urban

residents to relieve the pressure of fast-paced life (Hu,

2021). Sports tourism is different from traditional

tourism and simple sports and fitness activities, sports

tourism as the connotation of sports, tourism as a

carrier, sports to provide resources, tourism to drive

the market, the organic combination of sports and

tourism, a special way of leisure and tourism life. As

early as in China's "12th Five-Year Plan" will be "the

development of green and low-carbon economy" as

an important element to promote to the whole society,

aimed at advocating green low-carbon, energy saving

and emission reduction to deal with the serious global

environmental problems. In 2009, China defined the

tourism industry for the first time as a strategic and

emerging industry of the national economy, and

vigorously promoted the integrated development of

tourism and sports and other related industries and

sectors, and supported the development of sports

tourism in areas with conditions. In the "Opinions of

the State Council on Accelerating the Development

of Tourism" for the first time proposed to advocate a

"low-carbon tourism approach", this concept is seen

as China's industrial restructuring to promote the

development of a low-carbon economy. Tourism is an

advantageous industry in addressing climate change

and energy conservation and emission reduction, and

has great potential for carbon reduction and space for

carbon reduction. The trend of developing "carbon

neutral tourism" in China is unstoppable, so as an

Zhang, Z., Xu, Y. and Wang, X.

Research on the Development of Carbon Neutral Sports Tourism Industry.

DOI: 10.5220/0011736200003607

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Public Management, Digital Economy and Internet Technology (ICPDI 2022), pages 331-336

ISBN: 978-989-758-620-0

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

331

important branch of "carbon neutral tourism",

"carbon neutral sports tourism" will also usher in a

great opportunity for vigorous development. It is a

new force in the sports tourism industry to "adjust the

structure and maintain growth".

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

2.1 Literature Method

The keywords of "carbon neutral", "sports tourism",

"carbon neutral sports tourism" and "sports industry"

were searched in web of science, CNKI and Wanfang

databases. The keywords of "sports industry" were

searched, and the retrieved articles were summarized,

sorted and summarized. Through detailed reading of

important literature and understanding of the current

research progress and results, the focus of this study

and research ideas were established.

2.2 Expert Interview Method

The materials and research progress summarized and

analyzed in the study were discussed with several

experts (faculty members working in environmental

protection and sports industry research) and

combined with expert opinions to reach the final

conclusion of this study.

2.3 Case Analysis Method

We will analyze the excellent projects on carbon

neutral, carbon neutral sports tourism and green

development of sports industry in representative

countries and regions individually, and try to

summarize and condense the logical progression,

realization path and future prospect of integrated

sharing of sports resources through case studies.

3 RESULTS & DISCUSSION

President Xi Jinping attaches great importance to

China's carbon emissions as an important policy

direction for the 14th Five-Year Plan and beyond.

Since September 2020, President Xi has made

important speeches on China's carbon peaking and

carbon neutrality in several important meetings.

China has incorporated carbon peaking and carbon

neutrality into the overall layout of ecological

civilization construction, and is comprehensively

promoting green, low-carbon and circular economic

development (Lin, 2017). Achieving carbon peaking

and carbon neutrality is an extensive and profound

economic and social systemic change, an inherent

requirement for China to achieve sustainable and

high-quality development, and an inevitable choice to

promote the building of a community of human

destiny. The tourism industry, especially the sports

tourism industry, should respond positively to the

goal of achieving carbon peaks and carbon neutrality

in China, put forward the industry's carbon peaks and

carbon neutrality goals and construction plans,

actively promote changes in tourism consumption

patterns, improve tourism product structures, take a

refined, high-quality, ecological tourism

development path, make industry contributions in the

process of energy conservation and emission

reduction, achieve carbon peaks and carbon neutrality

goals, and make carbon peaks and carbon neutrality a

part of the history of high-quality tourism

development. We will make our contribution to the

industry in the process of energy saving and emission

reduction, and achieve the goal of carbon peak and

carbon neutral.

3.1 Low Carbon Tourism and Carbon

Neutral Tourism

Low-carbon tourism is an important initiative of

China's tourism industry to cope with global climate

change and energy security. It is a sustainable form of

tourism development guided by the concept of

sustainable development and low-carbon

development, adopting low-carbon technologies and

rational use of resources to achieve energy

conservation and emission reduction in tourism and

maximize the comprehensive social, ecological and

economic benefits, and is an important way to

promote the construction of ecological civilization.

Low-carbon tourism takes energy consumption,

environmental pollution and greenhouse gas

emissions as the starting point, saves material and

energy resources, reduces waste and environmental

harmful emissions, and its essence lies in solving the

problems of improving energy utilization efficiency

and clean energy structure in tourism, using resources

scientifically and reasonably, and protecting the

ecological environment.

Carbon neutral tourism is an activity in which

tourists prevent and control the negative impact of

carbon emissions by generating or purchasing carbon

offsets and related means for carbon emissions that

cannot be reduced or eliminated in certain segments.

It is a more pragmatic approach that acknowledges

the fact that certain aspects of tourism activities

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inevitably generate carbon emissions, and

compensates for them through positive actions by

tourism companies or tourists themselves (such as

planting trees or participating in other environmental

projects). Like low-carbon tourism, carbon-neutral

tourism is a product of the tourism industry's positive

response to global warming and is a practical form of

sustainable tourism. Compared with low-carbon

tourism, carbon-neutral tourism has newer concepts

and measures, and has a much longer way to go on

the road to carbon reduction. In carbon neutral

tourism, the carbon footprint of tourists can be

quantified, the carbon reduction targets are very clear,

and the carbon compensation measures are

diversified and incentivized, which are features that

make it go beyond low carbon tourism. At the same

time, this also makes carbon neutral tourism more

demanding for tourists or tourism companies.

3.2 The Need to Develop Low-Carbon

Sports Tourism

3.2.1 Carbon Neutral Tourism in

International Practice

An early adopter of the concept of carbon neutral

tourism in the world is Costa Rica. As early as 2007,

the Costa Rican government announced its plan to

become the first "carbon neutral" country in the world

by 2021. To achieve this goal, the Costa Rican

government is focusing on the development and use

of clean energy sources such as wind, hydro and

geothermal power, and has established a Carbon

Emissions Board to manage carbon credits. Tourism,

one of the mainstays of Costa Rica, is also an

important part of the carbon neutral strategy. Some

hotels in the Costa Rican capital have introduced tips

for tourists, including more than 20 measures to

reduce carbon emissions, and carbon-neutral certified

hotels in eco-views have taken technical and design

measures to promote energy saving and emission

reduction, such as injecting air into the tap water to

save water, setting up separate bins for kitchens, and

using solar water heaters, taking practical actions to

achieve " carbon neutral", and set an example in

offsetting greenhouse gas emissions. According to

incomplete statistics, 30 countries (regions) have

already set carbon neutral vision targets in their

development strategies (Table 1).

Table 1: Key elements of carbon neutral vision targets proposed by countries (regions).

No. Country

Goal Achievement

Time

Commitment

Nature

Main contents

1 Austria 2040

Policy

Declaration

Commitment to climate neutrality by 2040 and

100% clean electricity by 2030, based on binding

carbon emissions tar

ets.

2 China Before 2060

Policy

Declaration

On September 22, 2020, President Xi Jinping

announced at the United Nations General

Assembly that he would strive to achieve carbon

neutrality by 2060 and adopt "stronger policies and

measures" to reach peak carbon emissions by

2030.

3 Singapore

The second half of

the 21st century

Submit to the

Avoid committing to a clear decarbonization date,

phasing out internal combustion locomotives by

2040, with electric vehicles taking their place.

4 Japan 2050

Policy

Declaration

In his first policy address to the Diet on October

26, 2020, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga

announced that Japan will achieve net zero

greenhouse gas emissions and become completely

carbon neutral b

2050.

5 Germany 2050

Legal

requirements

The Climate Protection Act enters into force in

December 2019 and plans to achieve carbon

neutrality by 2050.

European

Union

2050

Submit to the

In December 2019, the EU released its Green New

Deal, which sets out to work towards a net zero

emissions target by 2050, with the long-term

strategy being presented to the UN in March 2020.

Source: Compiled from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change website, https:/

/newsroom.unfccc.int /process / the-paris-agreement /long-term-strategies.

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3.2.2 The Overall Sports Tourism Industry

Chain Needs to Be Energy Efficient

Sports tourism industry is a comprehensive industry

that mainly relies on sports tourism resources and

sports tourism facilities to meet various needs of

sports tourism consumers by providing sports tourism

services. The correlation between sports tourism

industry and other industries is extremely high. The

development and utilization of each sports tourism

resource will lead to the development of many related

industries. The industries related to the sports tourism

industry mainly refer to the upstream industries and

auxiliary industries that provide raw materials and

services for the sports tourism industry; they also

include industries that share certain service

technologies and operational channels with the sports

tourism industry, such as transportation, catering and

accommodation, mass entertainment, merchandise

retail, and communication. All of these industries are

closely related to carbon consumption, with a large

amount of greenhouse gas emissions, and some of

them even consume very large amounts of energy.

These conditions are in serious contradiction with

China's "12th Five-Year Plan", in which "developing

a green and low-carbon economy" is a key element,

and the whole society advocates energy saving and

emission reduction to cope with the global

environmental deterioration trend and maintain the

macro background of sustainable and healthy

economic development. Therefore, the development

of carbon neutral sports tourism must take into

account the need for energy saving and emission

reduction in the overall industry chain.

3.2.3 Traditional Sports Tourism Lacks a

Sustainable Power Mechanism

The development of traditional sports tourism mostly

focuses on immediate benefits and ignores the

sustainable use of sports tourism resources; it focuses

excessively on the economic benefits of sports

tourism and ignores the social and humanistic, low-

carbon ecological benefits of sports tourism; when

developing and operating sports tourism resources, it

lacks in-depth research and comprehensive scientific

proof, and lacks a detailed and rigorous evaluation

and planning system, and develops and operates in a

quick and blind manner. Due to the emphasis on

development, light protection, resulting in many non-

renewable valuable sports tourism resources artificial

destruction and waste. Due to the lack of market

research and detailed and rigorous evaluation and

planning system, the quality of many sports tourism

products fails to meet the carbon neutral requirements,

and there is an extreme lack of professional

management talents in carbon neutral sports tourism,

and the publicity and education of environmental

protection awareness and carbon neutral ecological

awareness of tourists are neglected, which has

become a serious obstacle to the further healthy and

sustainable development of the traditional sports

tourism industry in China in a carbon-neutral

economy and society.

3.2.4 Traditional Sports Tourism Is a Far

Cry from The Requirements of

Carbon Neutral Sports Tourism

The comprehensive, complex and strongly connected

nature of sports tourism reflects the superb drive of

sports tourism, so the transformation of traditional

sports tourism to low-carbon sports tourism must be

supported both through its own improvements and by

industries related to the sports tourism industry. In

reality, however, with the continuous development of

new sports tourism models, the catering and

accommodation industry, tourism transportation

industry, contact communication industry, and

commodity retail industry are increasingly integrated

into the sports tourism industry. These industries

above use a large number of non-environmentally

friendly products in the production and operation

process in order to maximize profits, and some

industries are themselves high energy-consuming and

high carbon industries. Therefore, it is necessary to

build a low-carbon sports tourism industry system.

From the low-carbon development of a single sports

tourism industry to the linked low-carbon

development of the entire industrial system, the

organic linkage of the industrial chain is formed, and

the energy saving and emission reduction of each link

on the sports tourism industrial system is done to

realize the low-carbon ecological path of the sports

tourism industrial system and promote the realization

of low-carbon sports tourism as a whole.

3.2.5 The Concept of Carbon-Neutral and

Sports Tourism Still Lacks Sufficient

Awareness in The Whole Society

From theory to practice, the concept of carbon neutral

life needs the joint efforts of the general public, and

eventually realize the true meaning of "carbon neutral

life" in all aspects of social life. The biggest obstacle

to the transition from traditional sports tourism to

carbon neutral sports tourism is first of all the tourists'

perceptions and the degree of acceptance of carbon

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neutral sports tourism by tourists. There is a certain

conflict between the "carbon neutral sports tourism

concept" and the "traditional sports tourism

enjoyment", as sports tourism is a superior experience

in the eyes of many tourists, a kind of consumption

and relaxation at will, while carbon neutral sports

tourism requires conservation, environmental

protection, self-discipline, and carbon emission.

environmental protection, self-discipline, and carbon

neutral living. Many tourists will feel that carbon

neutral sports tourism is a kind of pressure, is a kind

of fetters; and then there are some local governments

and traditional sports tourism industry business

developers, there is a high-speed through the sports

tourism industry to reflect the "so-called political

achievements" of the GDP growth of one-sided

thinking, regardless of the healthy and sustainable

development of sports tourism industry. This is

obviously contradictory to the requirement of carbon

neutral sports tourism. The above shows that there is

a serious lack of awareness of the concept of carbon

neutral sports tourism in the whole society.

3.3 Carbon Neutral Sports Tourism

Development Strategy in China

Promoting carbon-neutral sports tourism is in line

with China's national conditions, and the State

Council's Opinions on Accelerating the Development

of Tourism clearly states that tourism development

must be energy-saving and emission-reducing, and

advocates a carbon-neutral way of tourism that is

harmonious between man and nature. The National

Tourism Administration's "Guidance on Further

Promoting Energy Conservation and Emission

Reduction in Tourism" stipulates that tourism

industries at all levels should set up energy

conservation and emission reduction management

agencies and make energy conservation and emission

reduction an important evaluation indicator for the

development of tourism. Therefore, the development

of sports tourism should also take energy

conservation and emission reduction as an important

evaluation indicator.

First of all, we should insist on trial exploration

before demonstration and promotion. Carbon neutral

tourism is still a new thing, and its project design,

technical support and operation mode are not mature

enough, so it is not advisable to start all at once and

bloom everywhere (Chen, 2017). Generally speaking,

the smaller the carbon emissions from tourism

activities, the lower the difficulty of carbon neutrality;

the more sensitive the tourist destination is to carbon

dioxide, the stronger the urgency of carbon neutrality

implementation; the higher the resource protection

fee charged by the tourist destination, the greater the

responsibility of carbon neutrality implementation.

After sufficient experience has been accumulated, the

project will be expanded to other types of tourist

destinations.

Secondly, we should insist on attaching

importance to creativity and turning abstraction into

concreteness. Unlike professionals in the field of

ecology and environmental protection, tourists

pursue unique, profound and rich experiences.

Carbon neutral tourism development should fully

consider this point, follow the law of experience

economy and creative economy, enhance the

experience and creativity, transform the abstract

concept into concrete image activities, make carbon

neutral tourism become "visible scenery", "touchable

enjoyment ".

Finally, the characteristics of carbon neutral

sports tourism should be fully explored and

developed. More so, carbon neutral sports tourism

should gradually develop carbon neutral sports

tourism projects with sports characteristics and

project features based on the advanced concepts and

experiences of other categories of carbon neutral

tourism projects, so as to enhance the recognition and

participation of tourists and potential tourists in

carbon neutral sports tourism projects.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Currently, China's energy consumption and carbon

emissions are already the second highest in the world,

and are expected to rise to the first place by around

2025. At the same time, China has become the world's

largest domestic tourism market, and the carbon

emissions and emission reduction potential of the

tourism industry cannot be ignored. More importantly,

a voluntary emission reduction market has taken

shape, and more and more individuals are buying

carbon offsets to offset the carbon emissions

generated by their travel activities, which provides a

market base for carbon neutral tourism. According to

an online survey conducted by Ctrip in 2009, more

than 60% of travelers supported the company's

carbon offset program. However, carbon neutrality is

a relatively abstract concept, and some tourists have

difficulty in understanding its true meaning;

individual tourism enterprises lacking social

responsibility use it as a marketing booster, and

interpret carbon neutrality action as a "public

relations show"; the way of carbon neutrality is

relatively single, and there are almost no other

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options besides planting trees; there is a lack of

authoritative carbon neutrality The lack of

authoritative carbon neutral certification and the lack

of sufficient transparency and feedback on the

investment of carbon neutral costs paid by tourists

affects the credibility of carbon neutral tourism

projects. In order to solve the above problems, we

should actively consider and explore the healthy

development path of carbon neutral tourism.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Shandong Province Social Science Planning

Research Project (15CTYJ09); Shandong Province

Undergraduate University Teaching Reform

Research Project (M2018X247)

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