Abstract: Low-carbon tourism is an important way to solve the contradiction between tourism development and environmental protection. Carbon equilibrium analysis is an exploratory work in the low-carbon transformation of tourism in the new era, as it has broken through the predicament of previous research, which cannot clearly quantify the pressure of carbon emission reduction. Consequently, carbon equilibrium analysis has become a new academic hotspot. In this study, combined with regional tourism income and GDP, we established models of carbon emission and ecosystem carbon sequestration to estimate the mean annual carbon deficit of tourism in Taiyuan City. From 2010 to 2016, carbon emission of tourism increased from 48.85×10⁷ kg to 66.84×10⁷ kg. Transport, accommodation, shopping, and catering sectors were the main carbon sources. The proportion of tourism transportation and accommodation sectors to carbon emission generally-reduced in the selected period of time, while the proportion of other sectors increased annually, implying the change of tourism consumption structure to some extent. Mean annual carbon sequestration of terrestrial ecosystems in Taiyuan was 122.98×10⁷kg. Forest and farmland were major carbon sink, while grassland and aquatic systems were relatively weak in sequestering carbon. The estimated mean annual carbon deficit of tourism was 34.30×10⁷ kg, with a serious carbon imbalance. Therefore, tourism is a significant carbon source in Taiyuan. Energy saving, emission reduction, and ecological enhancement of carbon sink should be effective ways for future development.

Key words: yellow fluvo-aquic soil, fertilization, soil fertility.