ABSTRACT
Consumerism has generally increased in past decades, with the Worldwatch Institute (2010) reporting that purchases of consumer goods included 68 million vehicles, 85 million refrigerators, 297 million computers and 1.2 billion mobile phones in 2008. It goes on to report that between 1950 and 2005, metals production grew six-fold, oil consumption eight-fold and natural gas consumption 14-fold. Sixty billion tonnes of resources are now extracted annually, with an average European using 43 kg of resources per day and an American 88 kg. Services, such as tourism, are by no means less energy and resource intense, and the steep rise in production/consumption-related growth in global GHG emissions (Le Quéré et al. 2009) is also a result of tourism. Given the share of tourism in global GHG emissions and the observed and projected growth in this sector, it is essential to understand the mechanisms driving tourist activity.
