SYDNEY, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- Greenhouse gas emissions from tourism surged by 40 percent over the 10 years to 2019, Australian-led research has found.

According to the research, which was published on Wednesday by the University of Queensland (UQ), the tourism industry's global carbon footprint increased from 3.7 gigatons (Gt) of emissions in 2009 to 5.2 Gt in 2019, seeing an increase of 40.5 percent.

During the 10-year period, the emissions growth rate for tourism was 3.5 percent per annum. By comparison, global emissions from all sources grew by 1.5 percent per year from 50.9 Gt in 2009 to 59.1 Gt in 2019.

As a result, tourism accounted for 8.8 percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, up from 7.2 percent in 2009.

Ya-Yen Sun, lead author of the study from UQ's Business School, said that slow technology improvements and a rapid growth in demand are driving increased emissions.

Researchers from UQ, Griffith University and the University of Sydney in Australia as well as Sweden's Linnaeus University tracked international and domestic travel for 175 countries.

The team recommended several measures to help the industry lower its emissions, including reducing long-haul flights, carbon dioxide taxes, carbon budgets and alternative fuel obligations for airlines.

At a local level, researchers said tourism operators could use renewable electricity for accommodation, food and recreational activities and switch to electric vehicles for transport. Enditem

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