The carbon footprint of active sport tourists: an empirical analysis of skiers and boarders

This study estimated the annual carbon footprint of active sport tourists caused by snow-sport-related travel in the context of day trips, vacations, training courses, and competitions in 2015. Information about individual travel behaviour, sport profile, environmental consciousness, and socio-economic characteristics was collected using a nationwide online survey of adult skiers and boarders living in Germany (n = 523). The average annual carbon footprint of snow sport tourists was 431.6 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions in 2015. Boarders had a higher carbon footprint than skiers. Regression analyses revealed that income and number of snow days had a significant positive effect on annual carbon footprint, while environmental consciousness was insignificant. This finding can be explained with the value–action gap and the low-cost hypothesis, suggesting that environmental attitudes were not associated with pro-environmental behaviour in terms of a lower carbon footprint because snow-sport-related travel was perceived as a high-cost situation by respondents. Segmenting respondents by snow-sport-related travel behaviour yielded two clusters, frequent travellers (56% boarders) and occasional riders (43% skiers), which differed with regard to annual carbon footprint, club membership, number of snow days, and performance level. This study contributes to the literature on active sport tourism and carbon footprinting.