how to find sustainable travel companies
People said the pandemic made them want to travel more responsibly in the future.
Now new data indicates they’re actually doing it.
According to a report published in January by the World Travel & Tourism Council and Trip.com Group:
- Nearly 60% of travelers have chosen more sustainable travel options in the last couple of years.
- Nearly 70% are actively seeking sustainable travel options.
But finding companies that are serious about sustainability isn’t easy, said James Thornton, CEO of tour company Intrepid Travel.
“You see hotels saying they’re sustainable, and then you’re using these little travel bottles for shampoos and shower gels,” he said.
It’s all just “greenwashing,” he said, referencing the term that describes companies’ efforts to appear more environmentally sound than they are.
For a company to say they’re “100% sustainable” or they’re “eco-conscious” … doesn’t mean anything.
James Thornton
CEO, Intrepid Travel
The term has risen in popularity alongside the increase in demand for sustainable products and services.
The result is a mix of those who are truly dedicated to the cause — and those who sprinkle eco-buzzwords and photographs of seedlings, forests and other “green” imagery in their marketing materials, with no real action to back up their claims.
Finding companies that are sustainable
Be wary of these tactics, said Thornton.
“For a company to say they’re ‘100% sustainable’ or they’re ‘eco-conscious’ … doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “I would urge travelers to be very cautious when they’re seeing these words, and to really dig in and look in a bit more detail.”
Consumer interest in sustainable travel has changed considerably in the past two decades, said Thornton. He said when he joined Intrepid travel 18 years ago, “people would look at us like we’re a bit crazy” when the company talked about sustainability.
Now, many companies are doing it, whether they are serious, or not.
Thornton said he believes the travel industry is currently divided into three categories. One third have “incredibly good intentions, and [are] working very actively on addressing the climate crisis … and they’re making good progress.”
Another third have “good intentions but [aren’t] actually taking action yet. And often … they’re not quite sure how to take action.”
The final third “is just utterly burying its head in the sand and hoping that this thing is going to go away, and the truth of the matter is — it isn’t.”
To identify companies in the first category, Thornton recommends travelers look for three critical things.
1. A history of sustainability
To ascertain whether a company may be jumping on the eco-bandwagon, examine its history, said Thornton.
He advises looking for “a long history of association with issues of sustainability, or is this something that only just appeared?”
Intrepid Travel CEO James Thornton.
Source: Intrepid Travel
If the messaging is new for the company, that’s not a deal breaker, he said.
“But that would then encourage the customer to probably want to look in a bit more detail to see if what a company actually does has rigor behind it,” he said, “Or whether it’s something that’s just being done for marketing sake — and…
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