Tourism Ecological Footprint: Energy Consumption of Domestic and International Tourists in Egypt

Tourism Ecological Footprint (TEF) has been applied to monitor the environmental impact of the behavior and activities of tourists, in order to assess the sustainability of the tourism industry. This study aims to explore the attitudes as well as the behaviors of both domestic and international tourists towards energy consumption in the Egyptian destination. The study investigated the factors, which might affect the tourists’ attitudes and behaviors towards energy consumption. The sample consisted of four hundred and fifty nine tourists (247 domestic tourists and 212 international tourists).
 Questionnaires were distributed in five tourism destinations in Egypt; Sharm El Shaikh, Hurghada, North Coast, Luxor and Aswan. The results identified significant differences between domestic and international tourists concerning their attitudes towards energy consumption, as international tourists’ attitudes were more positive than those of domestic tourists. On the other hand, the domestic tourists’ energy consumption behaviors were more positive than those of international tourists. The results showed that there was deficiency in energy saving campaigns in the Egyptian destination. From the managerial perspective, this paper provides tourists’ energy-consumption patterns which may help policy makers to establish some guidelines in order to promote more environmentally-friendly forms of energy use behavior among tourists.