Transition to carbon-neutral tourism: A demand-driven approach

Abstract

As the climate consequences of tourism become increasingly difficult to overlook, understanding how carbon implications shape travel decisions has emerged as a critical yet underexplored research focus. Although scholarship on tourism-related emissions has expanded substantially, the field has paid uneven attention to how climate considerations are integrated into travelers’ decision-making processes. This dissertation examines carbon-neutral tourism from a demand-side perspective with a specific focus on young adults and Finland. It focuses on how young travelers interpret, negotiate, and enact low-carbon choices in everyday travel contexts. Drawing on research on pro-environmental behavior, the study conceptualizes carbon-neutral travel behavior as a socially embedded, layered process shaped by individual motivations, moral considerations, perceived responsibility, and structural constraints. Particular attention is given to the persistence of the attitude–behavior gap and to the distribution of responsibility for climate action among travelers, industry stakeholders, and governments.

The dissertation adopts an integrated and interdisciplinary framework to explain the attitudinal, normative, responsibility-based, and behavioral dimensions of carbon-neutral travel behavior. Drawing on behavioral and sustainability research, the study combines perspectives from the Theory of Planned Behavior, the Norm Activation Model, Attribution Theory, and the Avoid–Shift–Improve framework to examine low-carbon decision-making across different travel domains and levels of behavioral adoption. By differentiating awareness of positive and negative consequences, the study refines the understanding of personal norm activation, while the Avoid–Shift–Improve framework translates these underlying decision-making processes into differentiated behavioral pathways, structuring low-carbon decisions across key travel domains (e.g., mobility, accommodation, and consumption practices) and varying levels of adoption (e.g., weak, moderate, and strong engagement).

Finland provides a specific context for studying carbon-neutral travel behavior because it presents a sustainability paradox in which strong environmental commitments coexist with mobility and consumption patterns that may sustain high carbon emissions. The dissertation comprises a set of interconnected studies based on survey data collected independently in two survey rounds conducted between 2023 and 2025, involving 951 university students. Young adults constitute an analytically significant group because their travel practices are still forming, while their long-term mobility and consumption patterns will substantially influence the future carbon trajectory of tourism. The analysis employs quantitative methods and is complemented by conceptual and theory-led qualitative data analysis.

The dissertation contributes to tourism studies and tourism geography by advancing a theoretically informed and empirically grounded understanding of the transition to carbon-neutral tourism. The novelty of the study lies in its demand-side analytical focus and in the integration of multiple behavioral frameworks to provide a more comprehensive explanation of carbon-neutral tourism behavior. Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective that is situated within tourism geography, particularly research on tourism mobility, travel consumption, and socio-spatial behavior, and informed by behavioral psychology and sustainability research, it confirms that low-carbon travel behavior cannot be reduced to individual attitudes or intentions alone. Further on, it suggests that low-carbon behavior should be viewed in relation to social norms, awareness of the benefits of low-carbon actions, attribution of responsibility, and the specific social and structural contexts that influence travel choices. The findings indicate that moving toward carbon-neutral tourism requires collective effort across travelers, industry stakeholders, and governing bodies at multiple levels, with all playing interconnected roles. By treating carbon-neutral tourism as a demand-side perspective, the study provides a foundation for more detailed analyses of behavioral change across the social and spatial dimensions of tourism.