‘Small-Scale’ Tourism Versus Traditional Tourism: Which Will Be the New Key to Achieve the Desired Sustainable Tourism?

Abstract

The tourism sector after COVID-19 has raised different concerns that have lead to a development towards a more sustainable model of tourism. After the health crisis, the increase in environmental awareness of tourists has become evident. In this context, the great paradigm of ‘small-scale’ tourism has been developed as opposed to traditional tourism. The present work seeks to contribute to sustainable development in the Spanish tourism sector, comparing a hostel in Cantabria (considered as  ‘small scale’ /religious  tourism) and a hotel in Lloret de Mar (considered as a traditional tourism) one using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology to verify advantages and disadvantages of both types of tourism. The functional unit (FU) used was ‘per guest night with breakfast included’. The results have revealed  similar results for both establishments in all impact categories, The electricity consumption and the impact of the breakfast in the hostel were identified as main contributors to environmental burdens; hence, improvement opportunities envisaged were focused on these critical points.On the one hand, a biomass boiler, a solar water-heating system and a hybrid solar/biomass heating are considered sustainable alternatives related to electricity consumption. On the other hand, oatmeal, Greek yoghurt and berries are good options for a breakfast with a reduced environmental impact. It’s also important to implement responsible and green practices in order to achieve more environmentally sustainable alternative and traditional accommodations. Therefore, it can be concluded by stating that LCA is a tool capable of identifying and studying the processes with the highest environmental impact in order to find out the most sustainable form of tourism.

Keywords: Life cycle assessment (LCA), Environmental impact, Sustainability, Tourism, Accommodation