More mobility means more impact on climate change: prospects for household leisure mobility in France

Abstract

Given the growing dependence of tourism on transport and the contribution of tourism mobility to global warming, this activity might be seriously questioned by mitigation policies. This paper explores prospects for household tourism and leisure mobility and their associated impacts on climate change. Household mobility patterns associating various forms of tourism trips and proximity leisure outings are developed. Their comparison shows that less conventional tourism does not necessarily implies less mobility, also the critical impact of long haul travel on climate change, and that fundamentally the future impacts are strongly associated with the individual choices between tourism and the other uses of spare time.

Keywords

• tourism
• leisure
• mobility
• climate change
• uses of time
• France