Clarifying carbon claims in tourism: conceptualising carbon-neutral, net-zero and carbon-negative tourism

Tourism actors increasingly use carbon-neutral, net-zero, and carbon-negative claims, yet these terms often lack conceptual precision despite implying different levels of climate ambition, responsibility, and evidence. This interpretive, criteria-based review clarifies their meanings, boundaries, and implications in tourism. It defines carbon-neutral tourism as a balancing claim combining reduction and compensation; net-zero tourism as a transition claim requiring deep value-chain reductions before residual emissions are neutralised; and carbon-negative tourism as a removal claim requiring verified removals to exceed emissions. A tourism-specific typology compares the claims across seven dimensions: accounting boundaries, mitigation hierarchy, offset dependence, removal requirements, verification burden, governance capacity, and greenwashing risk. An illustrative document-based analysis of easyJet demonstrates claim–evidence alignment. The article contributes definitions, evaluative criteria, actor-specific guidance, and a research agenda on accounting, governance, consumer trust, climate justice, and carbon removal.