Ask Skift: Is Travel Sustainable?

25.08.2023 - 13:10 / skift.com / Rashaad Jorden / Eric Jones / Ask Skift

Travelers have increasingly prioritized sustainability, however, companies across the industry have struggled to make substantial progress in going green.

And with travel — especially by air — continuing to boom coming out of the pandemic, is the industry really becoming greener?

Ask Skift, our artificial intelligence chatbot, provided answers to the question, using information appearing in our daily news coverage and Skift Research and Airline Weekly.

Here are the responses Ask Skift produced as well as more information we’ve gathered on the subject.

Ask Skift said:
The concept of sustainable travel has become increasingly significant in the travel industry. According to a research study by Bain & Company, there is a growing interest in sustainable tourism among leisure travelers worldwide, with travelers choosing destinations and providers based on their sustainability records and even willing to pay a premium for it.

The travel industry has also made strides in embracing sustainability, with Skift Global Forums emphasizing the importance of responsible tourism practices, reducing carbon footprints, and supporting local communities

What else you need to know:
Almost 82% of respondents in The Vacationer’s 2023 sustainable travel survey said greener travel is either very important or somewhat important to them. Furthermore, the same survey found that roughly 74% of respondents intend to make greener travel decisions.

However, a far fewer percentage of travelers seem to be spending more to do so. While Booking.com’s 2023 Sustainable Travel Report revealed 43% of travelers are willing to pay extra for certified sustainable travel options, Skift Research found in its December 2022 U.S. Travel Tracker survey that only 23% of travelers paid more for greener forms of travel in the previous 12 months.

Eric Jones, co-founder of The Vacationer, cited inflation as a major reason why more Americans weren’t willing to spend more on sustainable travel.

“While sustainable travel may still be important to them, its current level of importance is very low when they are attempting to make ends meet,” he said in April 2023.

Ask Skift:
Moreover, as the world of travel rebuilds post-pandemic, industry leaders, local communities, and travelers are becoming more mindful of their carbon footprint and the impact their travel choices have on the planet, resulting in a global shift towards more environmentally conscious tourism (June 2023).

What else you need to know:
As the desire for greener travel has grown, companies and organizations involved in travel are increasingly taking steps to reduce the industry’s massive carbon footprint. The U.S. Travel Association launched in March an initiative called JourneyToClean.com