Booking affirms that travel will become increasingly sustainable

The pandemic has forced to change the way in which companies and users make their trips. Digitization has been imposing itself in the tourism sector for years, a sector that is now committed to making travel more sustainable. According to a report by Booking.com, between main trends in travel consumption, sustainability begins to occupy a priority point. According to the portal, the industry has to make an effort to satisfy clear needs, and transform these intentions and aspirations into reality.

And it is that, almost three quarters (70%) of the Spanish traveling community has expressed a desire to travel more sustainably over the next 12 months, an increase of 56% over the 2021 report of the company. This desire shows a greater collective awareness when making decisions that positively affect the entire travel experience. More than two-thirds (68%) want experiences that are representative of the local culture and 64% want to leave the places they have visited better than when they arrived, while more than half of those surveyed (55%) say that Latest news about climate change has encouraged them to make more sustainable decisions when traveling.

An encouraging 39% of Spanish travelers say they have stayed in sustainable accommodation in the past year for various reasons:

• 37% say they chose accommodation to help reduce their impact on the environment

• Nearly a third (32%) wanted to have a more authentic destination experience
• 28% believe that sustainable accommodation treats the local community better
  

People surveyed agree that they want to avoid over-touristed destinations, with nearly a third (31%) saying they have chosen to travel in lower seasons and 28%) choosing a less popular travel destination in the past 12 months to avoid overcrowding. To this end, when they thought about future trips, 38% said they would be willing to travel only in lower seasons to avoid overcrowding and 68% revealed that they would avoid popular destinations and attractions to ensure a more even distribution of impact and benefits. of your visit. A third (33%) would even be willing to choose a destination other than their favorite to avoid overcrowding.

Needs to be able to capture the demand

As the demand for sustainable travel grows, so does the opportunity for the industry to continue working to create and deliver these types of experiences. The visibility of sustainable accommodation and the awareness that it exists continues to grow: 38% of the Spanish travel community confirms that they have seen at least one sustainable accommodation on a travel website in the last year and 31% indicate that they have actively searched for the accommodation sustainability measures before booking. However, much remains to be done to make sustainable accommodation options easier to find.

According to Booking.com, 73% of people intend to choose a sustainable accommodation at least once in the next year.

Of those who did not stay in sustainable accommodation in the past year, 28% said they did not know they existed, and 25% said they still did not know how to find them. More than half (64%) admit that they do not actively look for the accommodation’s sustainability measures before booking, but would consult them if they were easily accessible. This further highlights the importance of sustainability information being transparent and understandable to a wide audience of people.

Although 73% of people intend to choose sustainable accommodation at least once in the next year, there are still many people who struggle to find the right options. In addition, more than a third (39%) of people who travel say that the sustainability measures of accommodation and transport providers play a very important role in their decisions on accommodation and transport respectively. In fact, 71% say they are more likely to book sustainable accommodation (whether they were already looking for it or not).

To help people make more sustainable choices, and to help accommodations that have already made great strides in this regard, Booking.com launched the Sustainable Travel label in November 2021. This label is a pioneering solution that recognizes and shows the sustainability measures that accommodations have implemented globally: 99,000 accommodations around the world have already received this recognition. Focusing on practices selected for their accessibility, simplicity and high impact, and verified by independent industry bodies such as Travalyst (an international sustainable tourism initiative), the label has been designed as a universal tool to serve the needs of all types of travellers. accommodation, from an apartment in Amsterdam to a private house in India or a resort on the Gold Coast of Australia.