Tourism is generally viewed as a highly consumptive
industry with a substantial share of destinations operating
at less desirable eco-efficiency values than the global average
(Gössling et al., 2005). This is also the case for the Val di Merse
when international arrival travel is included in the calculation.
The tourism market segment to Val di Merse is oriented
around agrotourism, low-energy intensive activity, and locally
grown and organic agricultural products. The tourist equiva-lent resident EF for the agrotourism market segment may be
compared against other market segments to verify environ-mental gains of orienting tourist offerings around this market
segment. Opportunities to compare our EF calculations
against tourist EFs in the literature are somewhat limited,
due to differences in method, impact category inclusion/
aggregation, and available information.