Madrid, Spain – The World Journey & Tourism Council (WTTC) unveiled its newest report at the moment, exploring the crucial hole between travellers’ need for sustainable choices and their precise behaviour.
Launched at the moment 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 information associate YouGov.
The report explores the disconnect between what travellers say about sustainability and the alternatives they in the end make.
It supplies actionable steerage to Journey & Tourism companies on how they’ll tackle this hole by providing options that make sustainable journey each extra accessible and extra engaging, in the end balancing financial development and environmental duty.
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 boundaries to deciding on sustainable decisions.
Understanding these numerous views is important for companies to craft efficient sustainability methods that resonate with their viewers and drive actual influence.
In response to the information, price and high quality stay the dominant priorities for travellers, outweighing sustainability issues. Throughout all client segments, greater than 50% say price is a very powerful issue influencing buying choices, whereas round 30% prioritise high quality.
In stark distinction, sustainability is a main issue for under a small minority, starting from 11% to 7%, even among the many most environmentally acutely aware teams.
An absence of visibility additionally stays a big barrier to progress. Over 10% of respondents reported no publicity to sustainability messaging or info by way of 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 inexpensive sustainable choices. However many WTTC firms encourage change – whether or not that’s regrowing coral reefs or decreasing meals waste. Clients interact with manufacturers which have sturdy values.
I’m delighted to collaborate with YouGov for such a vital piece of labor. By closing the say-do hole, we not solely defend the planet however guarantee extra rewarding experiences for purchasers and a brighter and extra resilient future for our planet.
Enterprise Suggestions
WTTC’s report affords seven key suggestions to assist the business bridge this divide, calling on companies to guide by instance, partnering the place potential 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 shoppers, and introducing tiered reward programmes to encourage motion in any respect ranges.
Tailor-made advertising that speaks on to the values and wishes of particular person shoppers has been proven to considerably improve engagement throughout totally different segments. Designing out unsustainable choices to make sustainability the default selection can facilitate the decision-making course of and enhance the general expertise.
Many Journey & Tourism firms are actively adopting sustainable practices and speaking them to shoppers.
Intrepid Journey prominently labels journey itineraries with their carbon influence and offsets emissions robotically. Iberostar leverages AI expertise to scale back meals waste in its accommodations and prioritises underutilised fish shares. Hilton has outfitted over 1,800 accommodations with EV charging factors, with almost a 3rd of its EMEA properties powered solely by renewable vitality.
As local weather motion turns into an crucial relatively 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.