Sustainability in tourism as market opportunity

The topic of sustainability plays a minor role when people select a holiday destination or book a trip. Nevertheless, sustainable tourism can be an incentive for a particular client segment in future and therefore constitutes a market gap. These are the findings from a study conducted by Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in preparation for Word Tourism Forum Lucerne 2011.

The buzzword “sustainability” has also reached the tourism industry. But what exactly does it mean? And more importantly: What can travellers do to enhance sustainability? Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts has examined this issue empirically with the help of an online survey of 6,000 tourists in eight countries. The key findings can be summarised as follows:

1. Tourists have a very consistent idea about sustainability: They consider ecological, social, and economic dimensions to be relevant for sustainable travel. Factors relating to the region and with a direct impact on local products, populations and culture are seen as particularly sustainable. 
2. The means of transport used to reach and leave a holiday destination has by far the greatest impact on the environment (ranging from 60 to 95 percent, depending on the source). Nevertheless, CO₂ compensation meets with less approval than other factors that travellers claim to be important arguments for sustainability. 
3. When it comes to travelling, people primarily make their booking decisions based on weather/climate and price – independent of their personal priorities. “Sustainability is of little importance and comes second to last among the eight criteria there are to choose from”, say the authors of the study.
4. Tour operators who would like to place greater emphasis on sustainability will need to make do with the 22 percent share of clients who named sustainability among the first three criteria for their booking decision – a segment ranging from 18 to 26 percent, depending on the country and type of client.

A second part of the study is currently underway to identify the extent to which clients are in fact willing to book sustainable offers and also pay a higher price. This survey is restricted to Switzerland and includes 5,000 participants. The results of the whole study will be presented at Word Tourism Forum in Lucerne in April.

Dr Roger Wehrli, Lecturer and Head of Research at the Institute of Tourism, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts