Air Pollution and Tourism: Local Government Considerations

Air pollution and tourism are an inseparable combination. With more people coming to a location, the number of pollutants is bound to increase; with higher air pollution, fewer people will visit. So, how much air pollution is caused by tourism, and how does poor air quality affect the number of visitors? Find out by reading this article.

Air Pollution Caused by Tourism

The more people the more pollution – as simple as it is, with tourism it goes even further. Being on holidays, the visitors to your town or city are bound to opt for less sustainable options and therefore set an over-average number of pollutants into the air. Where exactly does air pollution caused by tourism come from?

• Car travel – Tourists strive for comfort, therefore, they search for the most convenient ways to travel. Whether it’s using taxis or arriving at the destination in their own car – they simply produce more greenhouse gases.
• Energy consumption – Many energy sources are still not sustainable. Yet, tourists actively use up more electricity than local citizens. This results in higher demand and thus more pollutants released into the atmosphere by the power plants.

However, the case is not black and white. As Jun Zhang and Yoyhai Lu proved in their research, initially, the growing number of tourists indeed induces air pollution. But, after reaching a certain point, further tourist development leads to an increase in air quality (2022), proving that conscious measures undertaken by local authorities are truly effective.

How Does Air Pollution Affect Tourism?

Having discussed how air quality changes over time in tourist destinations, we may proceed with the other perspective: air pollution and tourism from the visitor’s point of view.

As Bogalecka and Grobelna discovered in their research of the relationship between air pollution and tourism in the Polish region of Tri-City, nearly half of the respondents (students working in the tourism industry) reported that visitors actively ask about the air pollutants levels (2023). What is more, the research has also proven that the majority of the visitors came within the period of high air quality (ibid.). This research proves how air pollution affects tourism – if it’s low, it attracts visitors.

Why Tourist Hotspots Need Real-Time Air Quality Data

Local authorities in busy tourist destinations face a unique problem: the same visitors who fund the local economy also drive up emissions, and they expect clean air while doing it. Reactive policies, written months after a bad season, rarely keep pace with the day-to-day reality of a packed city centre. Quarterly summary reports cannot guide a decision that needs to be made by Friday afternoon.

Sensors placed in tourist hotspots, transit hubs, and pedestrian zones generate live data that planners can act on the same day, not the next quarter. A spike on a Saturday morning near a coach park is no longer a guess; it is a measurement, with a location and a time, ready to inform decisions about traffic flow, drop-off points and even pedestrianisation trials. Cities that lack this granularity end up applying the same blanket policy to every neighbourhood, which rarely sits well with either visitors or residents.

Sharing Air Quality Data with Visitors and Residents

The communication benefit is just as important as the measurement itself. Visitors increasingly check air quality before they travel, and a city that publishes live data publicly signals that it takes the issue seriously. Travel forums and social channels amplify both the good and the bad, so silence is no longer a neutral choice for any destination.

Sharing the same readings residents see also defuses one of the most common tensions in tourism-heavy areas: the perception that visitors enjoy clean attractions while locals breathe the consequences. When residents can read the same data the council sees, the conversation shifts from grievance to shared responsibility.

What Tourism Boards Can Do with Live Readings

Hotels, tour operators and event organisers benefit from being able to point to verified air quality figures rather than relying on regional averages that hide neighbourhood differences. Some destinations now publish daily forecasts alongside weather data, treating air quality as a basic visitor service rather than a regulatory afterthought. This kind of routine reporting builds expectations among visitors that other destinations then have to match.

A council that learns how to communicate air quality to residents and visitors at the same time stops fighting two information battles and starts running one. For the technical side of setting this up, see the three main ways to measure air pollution used by city authorities today.

The Takeaway

Tourists often increase air pollution by choosing non-sustainable means of transportation and using up more energy. However, with proper solutions introduced, local governments are capable of battling this issue and, eventually, improving the air quality. This is crucial not only for the local citizens, but also for attracting visitors, who are becoming more aware of the issue and pay attention to the air they breathe in.

Do you seek ways to improve the air quality in your region? See our solutions for local governments and find out how we can help you!

Sources:

• Zhang, J., & Lu, Y. (2022). Exploring the Effects of Tourism Development on Air Pollution: Evidence from the Panel Smooth Transition Regression Model. International journal of environmental research and public health, 19(14), 8442. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148442
• Bogalecka, M., & Grobelna, A. (2023). Air Pollution and Its Potential Consequences for Tourism and Career Development from Students’ Perspective: A Case Study of the Gdańsk Agglomeration in Poland. International journal of environmental research and public health, 20(3), 2651. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20032651