Booking.com has published its Sustainable Travel Report, an annual document based on interviews to travellers from 35 countries to learn about their habits and sustainable initiatives during their trips. Our partner, EnviroRental offers us the most relevant data from this valuable report to allow companies and property managers to be aware of current trends and priorities of travellers about sustainability.
Sustainability as a dominant trend
The report shows that up to 80% of the interviewed travellers are worried about travelling in a sustainable way. India, Philippines, Kenya and Vietnam are the countries where this attitude is more common among their travellers. This impact of sustainable trends when travelling is not surprising if we have in mind that 53% of the surveyed this 2023 claim that they have changed their way to travel concerned by the latest reports about climate change.
This data shows that for property managers it is an advantage to include sustainable actions in their accommodations. Increasingly, a sustainable vacation rental is a plus when the traveller is choosing between different options. From Icnea, we have shown us some advice about
how to make your accommodations more sustainable.
The balance between sustainable consciousness and traveller’s expense
Although the existing preference for sustainable options, among travellers there is a concern about the sustainable travel costs. As the Booking.com report shows, there is a friction between the desire of responsible travelling towards the planet and the cost of these options. The 74% of surveyed travellers think that people must choose more sustainable travel options but, at the same time, 49% of these people think that these options are too expensive and imply an increase of their trip expenses.
Due to this barrier, it is essential that owners and property managers know how to communicate to their guests which measures are being taken to make their vacation rentals more sustainable and explain why their accommodation is a little bit more expensive. The report also shows that 43% of the travellers are willing to pay a little bit more for their accommodation if they have a guarantee that this is a more sustainable option.
Sustainability importance to earn traveller’s trust
Among the interviewed travellers, there is remarkable concern about the difficulty to find sustainable travel options, and also, they talk about trouble to verify that these options are truly sustainable as the owner or manager say.
About this issue, the report shows that 74% of travellers want travel companies to offer more sustainable options. Despite this difficulty, 65% of the interviewed travellers claim that they feel more comfortable choosing a sustainable certified vacation rental. Also, 39% of them feel unconfident about the vacation rentals announced as sustainable.
Transparency towards the traveller and his trust are two key factors to attract customers to a sustainable accommodation. It is necessary that travellers can access reliable information by the owner or manager. To help in this issue, Booking.com is already offering sustainable seals and there are organizations such as Sustonica or Travalyst which offer sustainability reports for travellers and companies.
The traveller takes action
Despite these difficulties when travelling in a sustainable way, the report shows that travellers are changing their habits to travel more responsibly. 67% of them claim that they pay attention to turn off the lights, the AC or heating when leaving the accommodation, 43% claim that they choose sustainable transport options at their destination such as bicycles of public transport. Also, 69% think that it is important to invest some of their budget in local businesses.
Furthermore, the report shows that 47% of interviewed travellers would like to have more information about sustainable travelling at their destination. That points directly to property managers and owners who have the mission to communicate and offer guests sustainable alternatives in the accommodation or the city.
Booking.com report shows how the existing barriers of costs, communication and knowledge make it more difficult for travellers to find sustainable options. Although, it shows how paying attention to these barriers and finding solutions to reduce their impact, it is possible to highlight the value of every advantage of sustainable travelling.