CO2 emission and reduction of tourist transportation at Kok Mak Island, Thailand

Abstract

Koh Mak Island was promoted as the low carbon destination in Thailand. Transportation represents the main contributor of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions which is linked to climate change. These GHG emission from surface transport is quite complicated as data is scarce on the distances travelled for tourism purposes. The aim of this study is to estimate the amount of CO2 emission from energy consumption by tourist transportation in Koh Mak Island, Trat province, Thailand. The methodology of a bottom up approach was observed by using questionnaire surveys. Firstly, the questionnaire design ensured the validity of the questionnaire by calculating the Item-Objective Congruence (IOC) index which was found to be 0.96 which is acceptable. Secondly, CO2 emission from energy consumption by transportation was calculated by the 2006 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) criteria. The CO2 emission of local transportation was estimated by using the 465 copies of questionnaire that were distributed to the tourists. The tourism demographic information of male and female in Koh Mak Island were 42 % and 58 %. Most of the tourist age was 26-35 years old. The average local transport between beginning of the journey in Thailand and Koh Mak destination was 468 ± 139 km person-1. The total consumption of gasoline and diesel for road transportation of the 465 tourists were 7,954.01 and 15,199.80 L. Gasoline used in boat transportation was 1,357.80 L. The total CO2 emissions in transportation due to consumption of gasoline and diesel were 20,389.14 and 23,715.83 kg CO2-eq. The average CO2 emission was 23.83 kg CO2 person-1. The alternative to reduce CO2 emission in transportation by low carbon tourism is to ride bicycles on the island as the distance between landmarks are quite short and there is very good scenery between the roads. Copyright © 2018, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l.