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“Sustainable travel choices will also continue to rise in prominence and influence activity,” the World Travel Market’s WTM Global Travel Report said.
The World Travel Market’s WTM Global Travel Report, based on data from more than 185 countries, focuses on leisure, not business, travelers. But as Convene Digital Editor Curt Wagner pointed out in Convene’s Annual Industry Forecast trend report, event participants are consumers first. And tracking big-picture travel trends provides event organizers with insights into consumers’ shifting preferences and how attendee behavior could change in the future. Convene looked through the 80-page report with an eye toward trends related to sustainability and climate issues.
Extreme Weather Changes
Over the last year, almost 30 percent of all travelers put off traveling to destinations in key global travel markets due to inclement or extreme weather, including wildfires, extreme heat, or flooding, the report said. The trend was even more pronounced for people aged 18 to 34 — 43 percent of Gen Z travelers said they had reconsidered their plans because of extreme weather.
The data also showed shifts in where travelers are choosing to go, based on weather.
“Climate and environmental challenges may lead to the demise of some traditional tourism products for some countries as conditions or natural environments deteriorate,” according to the report. A separate story, published in Business Insider, reported a 44-percent surge in summer travel bookings to milder-weathered destinations — “coolcations” — including Canada and northern Europe.
A Higher Bar for Sustainability Claims
Nearly two-thirds of travelers recognized that travel “can have a negative impact on the environment,” the report said, and more than eight out of 10 respondents agreed that sustainable travel is important. Three-quarters said they want to travel more sustainably over the next 12 months. More than half — 53 percent — of travelers say that they try to minimize their carbon footprint while traveling, and 57 percent said they intend to reduce energy consumption on future trips.
The travel industry has responded strongly to the demands for more sustainable travel options, but choosing the most environmentally friendly option can be challenging, the report said, due to the high number of different sustainability accreditations and lack of information substantiating claims.
Travel consumers are “increasingly wary” of greenwashing, where companies provide false or misleading information about the environmental impact of their services. There is real demand, the report said, among travelers for more evidence-based sustainable options, leading to increased adoption of third-party certification. The report notes that Booking.com is now providing tools to accommodation partners to “improve the pathway” to display third-party certifications to help consumers make more informed decisions — and speculates that organizations like the Global Sustainable Tourism Council may play a more pivotal role in vetting sustainability standards going forward.
Overall, “sustainable travel choices will also continue to rise in prominence and influence activity,” the report said. “Elevated recognition of the potential negative aspects of travel on social, cultural, and natural environments, combined with climate change impacts, will shift behavior.”
Barbara Palmer is deputy editor at Convene.