Consumers do not often do what they say they want to do when it comes to sustainable travel. In fact, the average traveller has a poor understanding of what sustainable travel means, and a lot of education is needed to encourage better behaviour.
These were the key findings of a new piece of research released by Phocuswright at its Florida conference on “The Sustainability Gap: Belief vs Behaviour” which covered six Western markets – the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
Phocuswright fielded an online survey on June 2-June 26, 2023, through a Dynata consumer panel, targeting travellers in the six markets. To qualify for participation in the study, respondents had to indicate having taken at least one overnight leisure or bleisure trip in the past 12 months.
It received 5,070 qualified responses and conducted 21 in-depth interviews with destination management organizations (DMOs, NTOs), travel providers, intermediaries, B2B companies providing solutions (e.g., carbon offsets) and other industry organizations across multiple geographies. These interviews provided qualitative insights into the progress made and the obstacles facing industry participants in tackling issues around sustainable travel.
Said analyst Madeline List, “It’s not the rosy picture others have pushed of consumers ready and willing to dish out huge premiums for green choices, but I got a lot of feedback that it confirmed hunches people had about some big belief/behavior gaps. My stance is also that with this information in hand there’s a lot we can do to address sustainability more productively in the future, and a lot of improvements can be made with the right grasp of consumer behavior.”
Transport:
While more than 50% of travellers believed they are more likely to choose a method of transportation for its carbon footprint than for convenience, less than 10% actually did it.
Lodging:
While between 48% and 51% of travellers believed they are more likely to choose lodging based on iys environmental friendliness than for price, between 6% and 13% actually did it.
Destination:
While between 48% and 51% of travellers believed they’d like to visit places that are not veery well know but also less crowded, between 21% and 28% actually did.
Local Communities
To test the belief that “I want the money to spend to benefit the communities I visit”, with between 50% and 66% saying they cared about this, respondents were given these options – “restaurant used locally sourced ingredients”, “restaurant you ate in was locally owned”, “souvenir was locally made”, “hotel was locally owned or operated” and “how were animals treated at wildlife/animal activity”. The result was between the low 10s and 20% actually chose those options.
When asked whether they know what sustainable travel means, a high percentage said “standards for environmentally conscious travel are confusing for me to keep track of”. They recognised these parts – not littering, recycling, public transport, turning off hotel AC/lights, avoiding single-use plastics and no daily linen changes.
Travellers don’t see dispersal as sustainable travel – between 13% and 21% consider visiting off-the-beaten-path destinations as part of sustainable travel and they don’t perceive sustainability as their problem to solve – only 19-26% of travellers believe they travel often enough to have a signficant effect on the environment.
They think governments, travel providers and destination organisations should have primary responsibility for reducing overall carbon footprint of tourism, as well as ensuring tourism dollars benefit the local community.
They also think sustainable travel options are expensive – with 36-47% of them believing that – and the more someone is focused on sustainability at home, the more they think they’ll pay more.
If they understood what the green choice is, travellers said they’d be willing to pay 10-15% more for transportation, lodging and tours & activities.
The report recommends that travel providers:
- Increase sustainable options
- Make green choices prominent and easy to find
- Show that sustainability is accessible and affordable
- Help travellers understand that sustainability goes beyond the environment