5.5. Local transport
Activity was not an assessment category for local residents.
The ecological footprint for tourist equivalent residents was
estimated to be 1.57 gha/year (or 4%) of the total, of which
nearly all was due to EF assigned for energy use (0.46 gha/year
for local transport, 0.12 gha/year for activity and souvenir
shopping, and 0.99 gha/year for car rental). Reported average
daily travel distance for tourists was 75 km/day, although
interviews with car rental companies and responses to other
queries suggested that 100 km/day was more realistic as a
conservative estimate. Conversion coefficients for car travel
(Chambers et al., 2001) were weighted by 2.5 to reflect the
respondent's average car load (Patterson, 2005). Souvenir
purchases were weighted in the EF according to average
daily spending data of 6.0 euro/day for food items and 7.0 euro/
day for traditional artesian products. EFs were then assigned
weights according to an equal division among wine, olive oil,
cheese, and meat products for the food items and an average
goods and services EF value to account for the artesian
products. EF accounted for souvenir products was negligible.
Excluding arrival transport, the EF of a tourist equivalent
resident is only slightly higher than that of local residents
5.28 gha/year as compared to 5.47 gha/year (Fig. 4). Differences
between impact categories may be an artifact of accounting.
For example, activity was not assessed for local residents,
while similar entertainment consumption registers in the local resident's goods and services category. Meanwhile civic
goods and services (e.g., government infrastructure such as
street lighting etc.) benefit both residents and tourists, but is
attributed only to local residents.Fig. 5 illustrates the average
EF inhabitants of the tourist country of origin. A weighted EF
for a tourist equivalent resident who maintained home
country consumption habits abroad would register on the
Ecological Footprint index at 6.74 gha/year.