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Measuring the carbon footprint of your cycling holiday with CARMACAL

Friday, January 16, 2026
Are you planning a cycling tour or multi-day EuroVelo adventure and are curious to understand its environmental impact? Thanks to innovative tools like CARMACAL, measuring and managing the carbon emission of tourism packages is possible, easier and more transparent than ever before. Such tools are available both for conscious travellers and tourism professionals and help calculate and reduce the environmental footprint of your journeys.
CARMACAL logo

CARMACAL is a web-based application designed specifically for the tourism industry, but it can be used by anyone. It enables users to calculate the complete carbon footprint of travel packages.

The platform accounts for every aspect of a journey – from flights and ground transportation to accommodation, meals, and activities at the destination.

Biking on EuroVelo 13 - Iron Curtain Trail in Czechia
Biking on EuroVelo 13 - Iron Curtain Trail in Czechia
In the ICTr-CE project, co-funded by the Interreg Central Europe programme of the European Union and focused on EuroVelo 13 – Iron Curtain Trail several organisations have worked to establish a way to reduce the negative impacts of cycling tourism on the environment and society along the route or in the destination. After a thorough analysis of the existing climate-neutral travel solutions, Carmacal was found to be the tool best adapted to the ICTr-CE’s needs. It was then upgraded and optimised to be integrated within the Good Impact Programme

(GIP).

Getting started with CARMACAL

Using the tool is straightforward:

  1. Register and create new package by clicking "New Product" and entering basic details such as package name, code, description, duration, and number of travelers.
  2. Add daily details for each day of your journey: choose one of the 29 transportation types, choose your accommodation type, your meal (vegetarian or international buffet), and your activities (museum visit, mountain climbing, boat trips, skiing, and dozens more)
  3. Generate your report using the Make Report function, which instantly calculates total CO2 emissions and breaks them down by day and category.

Why evaluate your trip's carbon footprint?

Evaluating the carbon footprint of your travel has many benefits:

  • It covers all aspects of travel, providing a complete picture
  • As a cycling tourist, you can see how different choices affect your emissions – for example travelling by train or plane to your destination
  • You can compare different packages to identify the most sustainable option
  • It can be used by professionals, such as tour operators and travel companies, for their own services
  • It can help raise awareness of businesses’ own environmental impact, and reduce it.

In the future, accommodation providers will be able to add their own consumption data through the Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative (HCMI) table. This will mean more precise values, eventually expanding the system’s database with real-world emission data.

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Whether you’re planning an eco-friendly cycling holiday, a multi-modal cultural tour, or any travel experience in between, tools like CARMACAL empower you to make informed, sustainable choices. By understanding where your carbon emissions come from – and having the data to compare alternatives – you can create travel experiences that leave a lighter footprint on our planet.

The future of responsible tourism isn’t just about where we go; it’s about understanding the impact of how we get there.

ICTr-CE logo