tourism research

Agoda Sustainable Travel Survey reveals tourists' concerns regarding tourism's impact and measures to make travel more sustainable

Easy identification of sustainable eco-friendly travel options, limited use of single-use plastics and financial incentives for accommodation providers who maximize energy efficiencies are the top three additional measures needed to make travel more sustainable according to Agoda’s Sustainable Travel Trends Survey.

Agoda Sustainable Travel Trends Survey 2021.jpg

The findings from the Survey also revealed globally that overtourism, and pollution of beaches and waterways are the top two concerns of the impact of tourism, with deforestation and energy inefficiencies (including overconsumption of electricity/water) ranking joint third.

Globally, the travellers consider governments most accountable for making positive environmental changes around travel, followed by tourism authorities and individuals themselves.

When asked what travellers would pledge to do better in a post COVID travel scenario, the top responses globally were #1 manage the waste including using less single-use plastics, #2 switch off the air con and lights when leaving the accommodation, and #3 always look for eco-friendly accommodation.

The top practices most associated with environmentally friendly or sustainable travel are #1 renewable energy and resources like solar, wind, hydroelectric and water, #2 no single-use plastics, joint number #3 animal conservation and creating a smaller carbon footprint.

“We can see from the Agoda Sustainable Travel Trends Survey that the messages of taking simple steps such as switching off lights and air conditioning when leaving the room or reducing waste by minimizing use of single-use plastics are being embraced by the public across the globe. What is also clear is that while globally the message is governments need to take the lead on managing sustainable travel, there is recognition that some responsibility lies with people’s own behaviour,” explains John Brown, CEO Agoda.

The full Agoda Sustainable Travel Trends Survey 2021 can be downloaded here: Agoda Sustainable Travel Trends Survey 2021 - Agoda Partner Hub

Online reviews featuring social and environmental initiatives score higher

A recent study reveals that there is a correlation between mentions of social or environmental initiatives in online reviews and hotel ratings.

Ecocertified hotel in Austria. 

The recent study in the Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality and Tourism shows a correlation between customers who mention social or environmental initiatives in online reviews and how they rate hotels. The research showed that reviews with explicit mentions of sustainability was 4.75 while reviews with implicit mentions of sustainability was 4.32 and reviews with no mention of sustainability was 4.17.

Initiatives with high scores for explicit and implicit sustainability mentions in the reviews mention sustainable management, education, biodiversity, wildlife conservation and sustainable products. Despite the promising results, the socially or environmentally responsible practices factored in in reviews might be considered low with an occurrence of 31.7% and 6.8% implicit and explicit mentions respectively. Another factor worth noting is that all the hotels in the study had a sustainability certification. These certifications often have levels, e.g. 1 through 5 or bronze, silver, gold and platinum.

When breaking down the explicit mentions of sustainability (6.8%), hotels with a Level 5 certification received nearly 19% mentions while hotels with Level 1 received only 2.1%. This indicates that hotels with a higher and more broadly integrated level of sustainability are more likely to leave an impression on the guests.

The results of the study point to a business case for investing in sustainability certification, as a strong certification means implementing sustainability throughout the organization and operations, thus becoming more noticeable to guests.  

Source: Travindy