Stick with where you are - discover things to do and see in your local area - Wiki Thing

Why stick with where you are?

Around 50% of Britons take between one and three holidays a year,with the top destinations being Spain and France. One in ten manage to get away four or five times a year, and just over two million of us indulge in more than five holidays annually. ¹

A quarter of all holidays involve air travel, and cheap flights have contributed to a huge growth in this sector in recent years, with carbon emissions doubling since 1990. Taking a holiday locally, and absorbing the sights and sounds of what's happening in your area, not only helps the environment but helps you to develop a deeper connection with where you live too. In the UK we spend almost £100 billion alone on breaks and getaways, and everything related like buying new clothes, toiletries, travel insurance, car hire and spending money, ² so enjoying a break locally will help you save money too.

Carbon saved by taking a break locally, rather than going further afield.

Determining carbon emissions from flights:

The top 5 overseas destinations for UK holiday-makers are Spain, France, USA, Italy and Greece. ³ According to COIN's (Climate Outreach and Information Network) study of online calculators, one of the best calculators for air travel is http://chooseclimate.org/flying. ⁴

Using this calculator to determine carbon emissions for a return trip from London to each of the country's capitals (except for the USA where New York is a more popular holiday destination) ⁵, results in the following emissions: ⁶

Spain - 1143 kg
France - 525 kg
USA - 3857 kg
Italy - 1226 kg
Greece - 1874 kg

Taking an average of these carbon emissions = 8625/5 = 1725 kg

Determining carbon emissions from domestic breaks:

Domestic holidays account for 3 out of every 4 holidays, and according to National Statistics, the average distance travelled on a long distance trip in the UK is 61.3 miles, so a return trip will be 122.6 miles. ⁷

Carbon emissions associated with domestic travel by car:

0.207 x 122.6 x 1.61 = 40.86 kg CO2

(where 0.207 = kg CO2 produced by a car of unknown fuel type per km ⁸, and multiplying by 1.61 converts miles into km)

So calculating a weighted average of flights and domestic breaks:

3/4 x 40.86 = 30.64 kg
1/4 x 1725 = 431.25 kg

30.64 + 431.25 = 462 kg CO2 approx

In comparison, if an individual were to holiday locally instead, assuming travel within a 30 mile radius, by public transport, this would result in carbon emissions of around 5 kg ⁹

= 457 kg CO2 approx saved by taking a break in your local area.

Footnotes

Footnotes

Reference Notes

1 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5413850.stm

2 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5413850.stm

3 http://www.allkindofeverything.co.uk/holidaysite/

4 http://coinet.org.uk/materials/carboncalculations

5 http://www.holidayhypermarket.co.uk/USA

6 Chooseclimate.org calculates emissions based on user selection of a location's latitude and longitude; the location of the cities were taken from the longitude and latitude of the main city airport as given by http://www.world-airport-codes.com

7 National Statistics Social Trends 2008 report http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_social/Social_Trends38/Social_Trends_38.pdf

8 June 2007 Defra figures: www.defra.gov.uk/environment/business/envrp/pdf/passenger-transport*.*pdf

9 Train and bus emissions vary between 0.06 and 0.9 kg CO2 per km according to Defra passenger transport figures, so rounding to 0.1 kg CO2, for 30 miles = 0.1 x 30 x 1.61 = 4.83 kg CO2