People say sustainability is important to them, but their
travel choices don't always reflect these views. How do hoteliers manage?
GLOBAL REPORT – 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.”
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.
Madeline List
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.
People want to [support sustainability], but it should be a bit effortless, and that is what we aim to do… We lower the hurdle.
Inge Huijbrechts
“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,” Huijbrechts said.
“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 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.
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.
Accor, Booking.com
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,” Huijbrechts said. “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/
This story first appeared in Phocuswire