Tourist Carbon Awareness Scale

What it measures

Measures tourist awareness of their travel carbon footprint, concern about climate impact, and willingness to offset emissions. Air travel is the single largest contributor to the individual carbon footprint of tourism. Carbon awareness and concern are prerequisites for sustainable travel behaviour change. Increasingly relevant given flight shame (flygskam) discourse and airline net-zero commitments.

Representative items

• I am aware that flying contributes significantly to climate change.
• I know approximately how much CO2 my travel generates.
• I am concerned about the environmental impact of my air travel.
• The carbon footprint of my travel is something I think about seriously.
• I would be willing to pay extra to offset the carbon from my flights.

Citation

Higham, J., Cohen, S.A., Peeters, P., & Gossling, S. (2013). Psychological and behavioural approaches to understanding and governing sustainable mobility. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 21(7), 949–967.