The World Journey & Tourism Council (WTTC) unveiled its newest report, exploring the essential hole between travellers’ want for sustainable choices and their precise behaviour. Launched at FITUR 2025, Madrid, the report Bridging the Say-Do Hole: Create an Efficient Sustainability Technique by Realizing Your Clients was developed in collaboration with WTTC data accomplice YouGov.
The report explores the disconnect between what travellers say about sustainability and the alternatives they in the end make.
It supplies actionable steering to Journey & Tourism companies on how they will handle this hole by providing options that make sustainable journey each extra accessible and extra engaging, in the end balancing financial development and environmental accountability.
The examine, drawing on a survey of greater than 10,000 respondents, categorised travellers into six client segments, starting from the eco-conscious “Hopeful Worriers” to the disengaged “Local weather Change Agnostics”. Every group comes with distinctive behaviours, priorities, and limitations to choosing sustainable decisions.
Understanding these numerous views is important for companies to craft efficient sustainability methods that resonate with their viewers and drive actual impression.
Based on the info, price and high quality stay the dominant priorities for travellers, outweighing sustainability issues. Throughout all client segments, greater than 50% say price is crucial issue influencing buying choices, whereas round 30% prioritise high quality.
In stark distinction, sustainability is a main issue for less than a small minority, starting from 11% to 7%, even among the many most environmentally aware teams.
A scarcity of visibility additionally stays a major barrier to progress. Over 10% of respondents reported no publicity to sustainability messaging or data via any channel, together with mainstream media, social platforms, or community-driven initiatives.
Julia Simpson, WTTC President & CEO, mentioned: “Travellers care about sustainability however when shopping for journey, price and high quality are king. Clients count on companies to create reasonably priced sustainable choices. However many WTTC corporations encourage change – whether or not that’s regrowing coral reefs or decreasing meals waste. Clients interact with manufacturers which have robust values.
“I’m delighted to collaborate with YouGov for such a vital piece of labor. By closing the say-do hole, we not solely shield the planet however guarantee extra rewarding experiences for patrons and a brighter and extra resilient future for our planet.”
Analysis was additionally carried out by WTTC Member, Journey.com, culminating in The Sustainable Journey Shopper Report 2024. Journey.com’s report helps WTTC findings, noting the significance of price and making sustainability hassle-free, encouraging customers in the direction of extra sustainable motion.
Enterprise Suggestions
WTTC’s report provides seven key suggestions to assist the business bridge this divide, calling on companies to steer by instance, partnering the place attainable with different companies and governments on sustainability initiatives.
To drive actual change, the report recommends highlighting the financial and private advantages of sustainable journey, making certain eco-friendly choices are easy and handy for customers, and introducing tiered reward programmes to inspire motion in any respect ranges.
Tailor-made advertising that speaks on to the values and wishes of particular person customers has been proven to considerably improve engagement throughout totally different segments. Designing out unsustainable choices to make sustainability the default alternative can facilitate the decision-making course of and enhance the general expertise.
Many Journey & Tourism corporations are actively adopting sustainable practices and speaking them to customers.
Intrepid Journey prominently labels journey itineraries with their carbon impression and offsets
emissions mechanically. Iberostar leverages AI expertise to scale back meals waste in its lodges and prioritises underutilised fish shares. Hilton has geared up over 1,800 lodges with EV charging factors, with almost a 3rd of its EMEA properties powered fully by renewable power.
As local weather motion turns into an crucial somewhat than an choice, this report equips companies with the instruments and insights they should thrive in a quickly altering world.
WTTC urges all Journey & Tourism enterprise leaders to leverage this report back to encourage innovation and chart a sustainable path ahead.