Bridging the "say-do" gap in sustainable travel

As the travel industry works to meet the needs of environmentally conscious customers, the question remains: How can the sector ensure good intentions do in fact have a tangible impact? While many express a preference for sustainable travel, behavior while traveling differs.

Insights from Accor, Radisson Hotel Group, NH Hotel Group and Phocuswright offer strategies to tackle this sustainability behavior gap, with a focus on the importance of education and how technology can support more responsible travel decisions.

“We have been doing sustainability for a very long time. We had our first program in the early 2000s,” said Inge Huijbrechts, chief sustainability and security officer at Radisson Hotel Group. “We were the first hotel company worldwide to carbon compensate all our meetings and events worldwide.”

Radisson makes donations on behalf of guests who participate in a light housekeeping program, conserving water and power on site. In exchange, Radisson donates water to communities in need around the world.

“Through those donations, [we have] provided safe drinking water for life to more than 30,000 people,” Huijbrechts said.

Elena Ruiz Garcia, vice president of sustainable business at NH Hotel Group, said, “We are very focused on optimizing consumption—especially energy, waste and water.”

To incentive customers to reduce their environmental footprint, NH Hotels offers customers a drink or a donation to reforesting when they hang up towels for reuse and engage in other water-saving efforts.

Accor has also prioritized sustainability at its properties. The hotel group conducted research through a partnership with Booking.com and the University of Surrey on how to engage travelers best to embrace sustainable behavior. 

While 55% of those surveyed felt skeptical about directives like “limit your water use,” 70% reacted positively to empowering messaging, which helps align their behavior to their values, the study found.

Alix Boulnois, chief business, digital and tech officer at Accor, said the environmental, social and governance mindset is much higher in the younger generation looking for experiences connecting to the environment and the ecosystem. Accor has worked sustainability into its Accor Live Limitless (ALL) loyalty program, using artificial intelligence to link rewards to behavior, creating “a reward system for guests to do what’s right.” Accor also allows members to convert reward points into donations for a sustainability program.

During her presentation at Phocuswright Europe last June, Madeline List, manager of research and special projects at Phocuswright, said that the gap between what travelers say and what they do remains significant.

While people say they want to travel to sustainable destinations, they are least likely to discount destinations for lack of sustainability compared to other factors such as crowding, over-commercialization and poor maintenance.

For example, data from an in-depth study showed that up to 40% of travelers avoid a destination that is crowded and up to 18% avoid dirty or poorly maintained destinations. However, only 5-13% would not visit a destination that they believe doesn’t follow sustainable practices.

“People say sustainability is important to them, but those numbers were not particularly high for how many actually asked or checked if an option was sustainable before booking,” List said.

Sustainable choices take a backseat

Many travelers are passive or self-interested toward sustainable behavior at their destination. 

“People don’t necessarily feel that it’s their responsibility to make changes,” List said. In part, that’s because many take short trips to escape everyday life.

“They don’t necessarily see their actions as impactful as what they would do at home,” List added.

Garcia agreed, saying, “Clients expect hotels to have environmental programs, but when you ask them to change habits, they’re not always willing.”

Though corporate clients often require sustainability initiatives, their employees may not feel the same about actions like temperature controls that conserve energy or shower regulators that conserve water.

“They don’t truly value them at the user level—there’s a lack of sensitivity,” Garcia said.

Huijbrechts said, “People want to [support sustainability], but it should be a bit effortless, and that is what we aim to do … We lower the hurdle.”

List believes the key lies in aligning sustainability with traveler benefits. “People are more open to making more sustainable decisions when it has a direct benefit on their trip,” she said.

The incentive can be positive, such as a pleasant reward for supporting sustainable practices at the property, as NH has done with its free drink program. But it can also be productive by eliminating something negative, such as offering exclusive experiences that help guests avoid crowds.

“That nuisance factor is one of the better things that can be present to encourage so much change,” List said.

Technology can play a key role in shaping sustainable choices. Radisson’s Stay App allows guests to personalize their experience, including opting into light housekeeping. 

“It becomes so much easier for the guest to personalize their stay … and so we integrate sustainability in there,” said Huijbrechts. “We’re adding a visible label, ‘Sustainable Stays,’ to our Radisson Hotel Group booking funnel and app [and] we see … a slightly better conversion.”

Huijbrechts says Radisson has noted a change in guests making sustainable choices thanks to the ease of app interactions.

Generational differences, messaging are key factors

List also highlighted the power of location-based messaging, which encourages sustainable behavior. “Those things are helpful both at the property level or destination level,” she said.

Just because certain groups tend to feel like sustainability is an important issue doesn’t necessarily mean that they understand what it means to travel sustainably.

Madeline List, Phocuswright

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The Accor and Booking.com study found that: “Messaging that evokes feelings of ‘home’ fosters trust, warmth and familiarity, making responsible actions feel natural. Such messaging reduced skepticism by over half and doubled perceptions of the hotel’s responsibility.”

Garcia said NH uses digital tools to track consumption data and provide real-time feedback so guests can note the difference in their behavior.

“The real data is going to allow me to analyze it in a way that I can immediately communicate it,” she said. 

Boulnois noted that a generational shift also influences the push toward more sustainable travel. Others we spoke with agree.

“There is certainly an awareness that is higher than the average, certainly with Gen Z,” said Huijbrechts. “The numbers were really high.”

List said, “Younger people tend to be more aware of it and also tend to be more concerned about the future.”

However, across generations, good intentions don’t always translate to action.

“People who express that they try to live very sustainably at home are not necessarily the people who are making the most sustainable travel decisions,” List said. “Just because certain groups tend to feel like sustainability is an important issue doesn’t necessarily mean that they understand what it means to travel sustainably.”

The key is education, List said, which is consistent with the findings of the Accor study and with feedback shared by NH and Radisson alike. Travelers need to understand what meaningful actions they can take to travel sustainably and trust that their actions have positive results.

“A great starting point is just to make sure that consumers even understand what the right decision would be,” List said.

Huijbrechts suggested that messaging must be contextually relevant and accessible, with relatively easy actions for travelers to implement. “Repetition is good. Lowering a hurdle is good,” she said.

Radisson is exploring data-backed messaging and conducting a study to test how much messaging is available and at which touch points it becomes relevant.

The consensus from the travel experts we spoke with is clear: Meaningful sustainability in travel will require collaboration, more intelligent tools and a focus on simplicity, making it easier to bridge the gap between say and do.

There is a general awareness that sustainable travel matters. “We are becoming very aware, regardless of political contexts, of planetary boundaries,” Garcia said.

“We really believe in integrating sustainability in the guest value proposition,” Huijbrechts said.

“If we understand our starting point, it makes us so much more equipped to take action and to make just more comprehensive, better plans … than if we come at it with some kind of illusion that people are going to sacrifice so much more than they actually will,” List said.

The travel industry has the opportunity to lead by example—turning aspirational ideals into tangible outcomes and building a path toward more sustainable journeys for the long term.