Travel takes us out of our comfort zones and inspires us to see, taste and try new things. It also challenges us to adapt to and explore new surroundings and allows us to engage with different people and embrace new adventures.
In today’s world, travelling sustainably ensures the long-term survival of a location and its ecosystem. This is why loveholidays conducted a survey, of over 2,300 holidaymakers, to discover consumer attitudes towards sustainable travel in 2022.
The research revealed that 6 out of 10 of those surveyed said that sustainable travel is important to them, supported with the will to make conscious choices in regards to travel.
However, in relation to over-tourism, only 4 out of 10 said this was of importance, or that they would be willing to change their destination choice to support this.
The survey revealed who holidaymakers think should be considered responsible for preventing over-tourism. The local government was on the top of the list with 37%, followed by travel companies (36%), consumers (24%), the UK government (23%) and local people (18%).
The poll also explored age in regards to attitudes towards sustainable travel. Those aged 18 to 24 were most likely to agree that sustainable travel was important for them (65%).
On the other hand, the age group that was least likely to agree was the 35 to 44, at just 56%.
Love holidays also discovered what consumers believe is of the highest importance to make air travel more sustainable. Sustainable aviation fuels (i.e. greener biofuels) were ranked as the most important by 56% of participants. Furthermore, 30% suggested offsetting their carbon footprint, for example, planting trees.
Those questioned believed it was the responsibility of the local governments and travel companies to prevent this, above their own.
Holidaymakers were also asked who they think should be responsible for reducing emissions. 39% said it’s the government’s responsibility. This is followed by airlines (34%), consumers (28%) and travel companies (25%)
Finally, regarding taking action to help hotel stays become sustainable, the survey revealed that installing energy-saving technologies was most voted for (39%) followed by food sourced from nearby growers and food providers (34%) and cutting down on single use plastic (29%).
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