You asked
I would like to know if you have any statistics on how much carbon emissions the British tourism industry is responsible for each year? Would be interesting to see how this has changed over time, from the early 2000s to today.
We said
Thank you for your query
The UK is required to report its estimated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (commonly referred to as carbon emissions) on a number of different bases in order to fulfil a wide range of international agreements.
An article summarising the official GHG emissions statistics in the UK and describing the differences between them is available here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/articles/netzeroandthedifferentofficialmeasuresoftheuksgreenhousegasemissions/2019-07-24
Estimates of GHG emissions from the UK tourism industry specifically, defined using the standard industrial classification (SIC 2007) as Division 79: Travel agency, tour operator and other reservation service and related activities are available from 1990 to 2017 on a production basis from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/datasets/ukenvironmentalaccountsatmosphericemissionsgreenhousegasemissionsbyeconomicsectorandgasunitedkingdom or from 1997 to 2016 on a consumptions basis from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uks-carbon-footprint
Broader definitions of what constitutes the UK's tourist industry or tourist activity are possible. See for example the ONS UK tourism accounts available here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/satelliteaccounts/bulletins/uktourismsatelliteaccountuktsa/2016. However, estimates of greenhouse gas emissions from UK tourism, defined using such a broader basis have not been produced to date.