With a focus on the small Vietnam city of Hue, the ‘Sustainable urban tourism through low carbon initiatives’ project, led by the Asian Institute of Technology, Chiang Mai Municipality and the Hue Centre for International Cooperation, explored how the carbon footprint of tourism could be reduced, while maintaining and even enhancing local development benefits. While it is argued that tourism plays a key role in the city’s socioeconomic development, the brief explores the opportunities and trade-offs encountered by government agencies, residents and tourism-related businesses in the City of Hue as they navigated the choices available. It captures lessons learned from the project for the benefit of other cities facing similar options.