Abstract: Based on the three main aspects of tourism industry, tourism transportation, tourism accommodation and activities of the scenic spot, the bottom-up analysis method was used to calculate the tourism carbon emissions in the northwest region from 2000 to 2017 and the provinces in 2000, 2008, and 2017. Per capita carbon emissions and carbon emission intensity of tourism industry were calculated, and their temporal and spatial differences were analyzed. The results showed that from 2000 to 2017, total carbon emissions of tourism industry showed a fluctuating growth trend, while per capita carbon emissions and carbon emission intensity of the tourism industry showed a fluctuating downward trend, indicating that the development of low-carbon tourism in this region was gradually emerging; From 2000 to 2017, there was a significant gap in the carbon emissions and growth rates of the three aspects of tourism industry in the northwest region. The carbon emissions of tourism transportation had always been in an absolute dominant position, and the carbon emissions of tourism accommodation and tourism activities accounted for a relatively small proportion. While the growth rate of tourism activities was the largest, which was 7.75 times larger than the tourism transportation. The carbon emissions of the three aspects changed from 90.12%, 9.23% and 0.65% in 2000 to 90.05%, 5.97% and 3.98% in 2016; There were significant spatial differences in the carbon emission level of tourism industry in northwest region. The overall carbon emissions of tourism in each province （regions） were gradually evolving to high-emissions areas. Except for Qinghai province, the per capita carbon emissions and carbon emission intensity of tourism in other provinces （regions） showed a trend of transformation from high to low.

Key words: tourism, carbon emissions, spatio-temporal differences, northwest region