Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
attempt to monitor how tourist mobilities (as manifestations of spatial networks) change as
the parameters of international air access and aircraft technology change.
Emissions mitigation
At present, overt and/or specifi c references to greenhouse gas emission (GHG) concerns
are generally excluded from air service negotiations. For instance, despite the political weight
climate change carries, formal carbon emission impact assessments were omitted from the
EU-US open skies agreement (Mayor and Tol, 2008). As discussed above, while liberalisation
has been growing in force in politics of air access (see, for example, Duval, 2008), when viewed
as an example of market failure, the problem of climate change necessitates greater government
involvement in international aviation. While technological factors (fuel effi ciency, alternative
fuel source and aircraft size) will play a signifi cant role in curtailing GHG emissions, one chal-
lenge is how government policy responses to climate change will infl uence the resilience of
international air transport networks and consequently the mobilities of business and leisure
travellers. This has obvious fl ow-on effects for destinations and local communities.
Future research will also need to consider fuel shortages and the possible consequences for
aviation access policies and tourist fl ows. Large-scale biofuel replacement for expensive jet
aviation fuel is most likely not possible in the next decade at the current rate of technological
development, and jet fuel production will continue to compete with the same part of crude
oil that produces diesel and motor gasoline (Nygren
et al.
, 2009). Air transport will likely
need to increase load factors to reduce fuel consumption per seat-kilometre in an effort to
lower unit costs. As Doganis (2010) has shown, however, air transport is characterised by a
chronic over-supply. The rapid expansion of air transport induced mobilities may not be
sustained, and if this is the case, then the pattern of tourist fl ows (especially discretionary
activities such as air leisure travel) will be reshaped signifi cantly.
Place competition and policy
Place competition is arguably at the heart of destination and tourism management and thus
the provision of access is an important parameter. It is imperative that considerations of space
and place in tourist fl ows consider the various aero-political and geographical variables that
dictate global air transport as discussed in this chapter. In the past, the economic regulation
of the aviation industry has benefi ted aviation but not tourism; policy-makers have gradually
changed this over time to place greater emphasis on tourism benefi ts of aviation policy
(Dwyer
et al.
, 2010). Formal representation of the tourism industry's interests in air services
agreement negotiations is an example. Lobby organisations representing tourism and trans-
port sectors interests mobilise resources to infl uence government policies. In principle, these
developments in the tourism sector are expected to extend aeropolitics to include national
tourism interests. Although the centrality of tourism interests in aviation policy is not new (as
demonstrated by the Singapore and Dubai governments - see, for example, Lohmann
et al.
,
2009) a research need of particular importance is in the measurement and appraisal of tourism
benefi ts and the costs of aviation access policies. For instance, as suggested by Forsyth (2006),
this may involve assessing the trade-offs between home carrier market share (and profi ts) and
the changes in inbound and outbound tourism, with respect to the impact on income and
employment generation.
Increasing the collection and public availability of tourism data will provide greater
opportunities for research to focus on impact assessment and forecasting to help manage
