Guiding Tourists to Save Energy and Reduce Carbon Emissions through Tourism Behavior

Residents guide tourist behavior mainly in the provision of tourist accommodation, transport, and other tourist services. In terms of tourist accommodation and catering, air conditioners were installed in rooms provided by the residents. In order to save electricity, the residents provide signage near the air conditioners or on the remote control stating, "To save electricity, it is recommended to turn it on to 26 degrees" to guide tourists. In terms of tourism transport, in the Longji Terraces resort, the tourism management, and residents are aware of the impact of car emissions on the local air and have consciously chosen electric vehicles for their tourist transport services. However, owing to geographical constraints, the lack of motive power of electric vehicles makes them difficult to use in local tourist transport; therefore, tourist transport is mostly available by sightseeing vehicles and buses that burn petrol. Residents involved in tourism management S17 at the resort company mentioned,

*"The cars we use now still burn petrol, and the electric cars do not have enough power to go up the mountain, so it's hardly to use them, and burning petrol will definitely have an impact on the air, but we have more trees here, so the impact will not be big."*

Nevertheless, the scenic area continues to guide tourists to reduce the use of private cars to drive directly to the scenic area but rather take a scenic bus at the entrance of the scenic area to reach the village, thus, reducing carbon emissions by reducing the amount of vehicle travel.

## 4.2.2. Transforming the Structure of Energy Use for Sustainable Tourism

Energy consumption relies on outsourcing instead of self-sustaining household energy consumption. Before the onset of tourism, the energy consumption of residents was minimal for basic subsistence use. However, when there was a large influx of tourists, a substantial amount of energy was consumed for food and beverage, accommodation, and transport. For example, leftovers generated by local hotels and restaurants were routinely thrown out by owners into the rubbish collection pond at the entrance of the village at least once a day during the high season and once every two–three days during the low season. The waste was then transported out of the village daily to the rubbish disposal center. The laundry of local hotels was sent to a professional cleaning company in Guilin city during the high season, and used sheets were replaced once or twice a year during the high season.

New energy sources have been used instead of traditional energy sources. Electricity consumption is an important type of energy consumption; before tourists arrived, the villagers primarily used electric lighting. As tourism has grown, the demand for electricity has been constantly increasing with the rapid rise in electricity use for lighting, night landscape creation, air conditioning in tourism lodges, etc., which puts a higher demand on the supply of electricity. Thus, power outages occurred from time to time, which created negative experiences for tourists. To change the excessive demand for electricity, new energy resources, such as solar streetlights and air energy heaters, have been adopted by residents to reduce the reliance on traditional electricity. In particular, the use of air-energy water heaters has effectively improved the problems of long usage time, high replacement frequency, and high-power consumption caused by electric boilers.

A specialized sewage treatment system is used instead of direct discharge. Initially, the sanitary sewage flowed freely into the village ditches; however, as the tourism industry began developing, the ecosystem was no longer able to absorb domestic wastewater. Now, the use of a sewage treatment system has improved the drainage route by separating wastewater and clean water to effectively protect the ecological balance between the terraces for irrigation and the daily use of hostels. As resident S14 said in the interview:

*"Water was used to meet the needs of the tourists instead of the irrigation of the terraces earlier, so that many terraces were deserted. Later, the abandoned terraced fields were gradually re-farmed through the construction of the cistern. Before this was done, some of us connected the water pipes randomly, similar to the discharge pipes."*

In addition, to avoid damage to vegetation and soil from the use of pesticides, the use of herbicides has been banned instead of manual weeding. In addition, the number of cisterns has increased from one to five, and the function is divided into irrigation for terraces and water for fire protection.

#### 4.2.3. Improved Infrastructure for Sustainable Tourism

Due to the need for tourism development in the village, residents and the management committee, formed by themselves, are constantly appealing to the government and developers for infrastructure changes. For example, traditional streetlights are insufficient, posing safety hazards to tourists at night. The electricity costs were unevenly shared and unmanaged. Improper treatment of sewage affects the irrigation of the terraces, which has environmental and health implications. The improper management of traffic can lead to congestion for visitors as well as excessive exhaust emissions that affect the ecological environment. As owners of the resources, residents are constantly engaging with developers and the government to improve the infrastructure of the village, thus promoting the sustainable development of tourism sites.

The landscape lighting system has been improved in the village. The use of solarpowered streetlights saves electricity while solving the previous situation of no public lighting system in the village at night as well as the apportion of the electricity bill for

streetlights. It also creates a beautiful night landscape that enhances the tourism experiences of visitors. As villager S16 said:

*"We didn't have enough streetlights before as well as no illumination in the tourist attractions. However, the streetlights are now quite good. Whether it is a rainy or sunny day, solar streetlamps can be bright for a few hours to improve the convenience and safeguard for tourists at night."*

The construction of the sewage treatment system, water storage, and firefighting systems has promoted tourism sustainability. The construction of the sewage system in the village was conducted from 2012–2014 near the village. The completion of the sewage system solved the problem of the increasing domestic sewage resulting from the increasing number of tourists, and it ensured irrigation of the terraces and residents' daily use. Its original sewage piping was the first sewage system built in the county. The water storage system was constructed in batches. Before tourism, residents built a cistern at the top of the hill for terrace irrigation. As tourism gradually developed, the villagers then pooled together their money to build two cisterns to meet the need for tourism development and to increase the number of tourists. When the tourism industry grew further, two other cisterns were built with the help of the government and developer near the hiking area for tourists, as well as to increase the firefighting facilities and equipment in the village. More than 300 fire hydrants have been built throughout the village. Regarding safety, as most houses are wooden and brick structures with fire hazards, residents are equipped with fire extinguishers in their tourist accommodation, and the village committee supervises autonomy to ensure the safety of tourist accommodation. Thus, the construction of the water storage system and firefighting system not only ensured seasonal water usage for terrace irrigation to increase tourist attractiveness by maintaining the integrity of the terraced landscape but also ensured the safety of the residents.

Traffic facilities for tourists have been improved and preserved in scenic areas. The construction of car parking at the main entrance of the scenic area and the extension of sightseeing cars and new energy trams has effectively alleviated congestion and excessive energy consumption for tourists. The buses are outsourced to Revitalize Sightseeing Ltd. for their operation. Generally, group visitor cars with more than seven seats must be replaced with scenic buses. The scenery now consists of 30–40 oil-burning vehicles, with six or seven new energy trams added over the years. In addition to car parking at tourist entrances, multi-story car parking has also been built at village entrances. After parking at the gate, tourists are required to hike into the village. Only a few tour buses are available for transporting day trippers to the viewing platform. These measures reduce the energy consumption of the traffic load.
