Mindfulness About the Environmental Impact of Tourism Is Changing How We Travel
Both travelers and travel providers are stepping up their game
Sustainability is quite a buzzword in recent years, being infused into conversations about nearly everything, and the travel industry is no exception. While sustainable travel accounts for more than just environmental impact—it also comprises the socioeconomic and cultural impact of tourism—there is rightfully an increasing concern about the former. According to scientific journal Nature Climate Change, tourism accounts for 8% of the world’s...
Sustainability is quite a buzzword in recent years, being infused into conversations about nearly everything, and the travel industry is no exception. While sustainable travel accounts for more than just environmental impact—it also comprises the socioeconomic and cultural impact of tourism—there is rightfully an increasing concern about the former. According to scientific journal Nature Climate Change, tourism accounts for 8% of the world’s carbon emissions. Since we all can’t (and shouldn’t) simply stop traveling, there’s an increasing demand and effort to reduce travel’s impact on the earth, by both travelers and providers. And those dual efforts, as well as the widespread transparency of how they're being achieved, will continue to put pressure on the industry as a whole to reduce its impact.
Many travel providers have already committed to lessening their impact, several within the past year. In 2020, United Airlines pledged to go 100% green by 2050, and JetBlue became the first U.S. airline to achieve carbon neutrality on all domestic flights. Tour operators are also emphasizing the importance of climate-minded travel, such as Intrepid, which has been carbon neutral since 2010 and declared a climate emergency in 2020 with a seven-point plan to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. These are only a handful of the many that are making strides toward a greener industry, and sustainability-minded travelers are applauding those steps.
A June 2021 survey from Booking.com that included more than 29,000 respondents from 30 countries showed that 83% of travelers think sustainable travel is vital, and 49% believe there aren’t enough sustainable travel options available. Another survey this year from The Vacationer revealed that 83% of all Americans believe sustainable travel is either somewhat important or very important to them (kudos to the latter), with 71% of adult Americans willing to pay more for a vacation in order to lower their carbon footprint.