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For all the buzz about going green, a recent survey by CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. for Travel Agent had some surprising findings about just how important this movement is to travelers today.
“Despite the efforts of some cruise lines to ‘go green,’” the survey says, “this is still a relatively new concept that has not yet gained popularity among some agents and consumers.”
Among the findings:
• Thirty percent of the agents polled more proactively market and sell cruise lines that are considered to be green.
• The remaining 70 percent of agents polled do not take cruise line green policies into consideration when determining which lines to most proactively market and sell.
• An overwhelming majority of the agents polled have not seen cruise line green policies arise as a deciding factor or factor of interest among travelers booking cruises. In fact, 91 percent of agents indicated that green policies are either "not important at all" or "seemingly unimportant" to their clients. Only 9 percent of responding agents indicated that environmentally friendly cruise lines are a priority for their clients.
The same seems to be the case among travelers booking land-based vacations with CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. agents—11 percent of responding agents indicated that a cruise line being green is "important" to their clients when booking a hotel or resort. The remaining agents—89 percent—indicated green policies at hotels and resorts as "not important at all" or "seemingly unimportant" to travelers.
The poll, which covers March 9-11, 2009, surveyed 125 CruiseOne and Cruises Inc. travel agents.