Sustainable travel is important to a majority of travelers, according to recent research by The Vacationer. The survey found that 26 percent of respondents said environmentally friendly travel was very important, while another 57 percent said it was somewhat important—good for 83 percent overall. Only the remaining 17 percent said it was not at all important.
The survey also found, perhaps not surprisingly, that sustainable travel was most important to the youngest respondents, with 30 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds saying it was very important (only 13 percent said not at all important); on the other hand, 23 percent of Americans over 60 said sustainable travel was very important, while 25 percent said it was not at all important.
There is a similar breakdown when The Vacationer asked if Americans intended to make more eco-friendly decisions when planning travel: 27 percent said “yes, regardless if it inconveniences me;” 48 percent said “yes, but only if it does not inconvenience me;” and 25 percent said no. With that said, almost 75 percent of all Americans aged 18 or older stated they intend to make more sustainable decisions when planning travel.
Despite the positivity towards sustainable travel, The Vacationer found it’s still least important when compared to cost (62 percent) and time and convenience (34 percent). Just 4 percent said sustainability and carbon footprint was the most important facor when booking travel.
Responses were fairly evenly split between how much more someone would be willing to spend on a vacation in order to lower their carbon footprint—to an extent. Twenty-nine percent said $0; 27 percent said less than $50; and 33 percent said between $50 and $250. Nine percent said they would pay between $250 and $500 and only 3 percent would pay over $500. Again, as noted by the report, the older a respondent was, the less likely they were willing to spend more on a vacation to lower their carbon footprint.
This Sustainable Travel Survey was conducted by SurveyMonkey on behalf of The Vacationer. In total, 504 Americans over the age of 18 were polled between April 21 and April 22.
Source: The Vacationer
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