Implications of Social Media in Sustaining Renewable Energy Usage

Introduction

Tourism is the primary source of foreign exchange for 33% of developing nations and 50% of least developed countries. Eight percent of the world's workforce is directly and indirectly employed by it. According to the World Travel & Tourism Council (2018) in exports, travel and tourism ranked first in 60 nations and are listed among the top five in more than 150. Each direct job created by the core tourist sector creates almost another half a job. Shuxin,. et al, (2022) explained that the tourism industry contributes 5% of the total world greenhouse gas emissions due to its rapid expansion in both domestic and international travel, tendencies toward travelling for lengthier and briefer periods, and an emphasis on energy-intensive transportation. Other issues involve garbage creation, untreated water flow, excessive water usage compared to household water usage and harm to the region's terrestrial and marine biodiversity. Human life depends on energy, and a sufficient supply is necessary to uphold our contemporary way of life and society. Worldwide energy demand and consumption are rising quickly, and this trend is anticipated to continue in the coming years. Developing the use of renewable energy (RE) as an alternative to conventional, traditional sources is one of the solutions. Ásványi, et al. (2017) argue in their work that due to the significant increase in foreign visitors, tourism is a focused industry in maximum nations (United Nations Environment Program, 2011). Ben Jebli et al. (2019) and Janjua et al (2021), emphasized that the tourism industry contributes significantly to global GDP, directly and indirectly, employs a sizeable portion of the labour force worldwide, accounts for a substantial amount of global exports and is a significant source of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the industry. The sector's expansion increased fossil fuels and powerful greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, improvements in renewable energy and energy efficiency associated with the tourism sector appear to produce sizable returns over a short payback period. Additionally, it has been discovered that most tourists support ecologically responsible tourism and are prepared to pay for associated experiences (United Nations Environment Program 2011). For each of these reasons, it is worthwhile to investigate how tourism interacts with these economic factors, especially renewable energy. Given below figure 1 indicate the potential of renewable energy sources around the world.

Figure 1.

Potential of reneawable energy opportunities around the world

Source: United Nations Environment Programme (2003)