2023-10-11 12:21:50
Not more, but slightly fewer holidaymakers say they take the climate into account when booking a trip. This year 48 percent of them did so, last year 52 percent. This is evident from the Holiday Sentiment Monitor of the Dutch Tourism & Conventions Board (NBTC). And while this summer the consequences of climate change came very close to home for a third of holidaymakers. Why are holidaymakers less concerned regarding the environment?
For the seventeenth year in a row, the NBTC interviewed holidaymakers from the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom. Dutch people consider sustainability to be least important on holiday, this study shows. Only 39 percent say they take this into account when booking a trip. The French are the frontrunners: 50 percent choose environmentally conscious choices.
Weather extremes dominated the news this summer, with record heat, forest fires and floods. 30 percent of respondents had to deal with extreme circumstances themselves. And indeed, 65 percent of them take the climate into account when choosing their next destination, much more often than holidaymakers who have not experienced extreme weather.
No time for climate concerns for a while
But ‘funnily enough’, writes NBTC director Jos Vranken, the changing climate does not yet lead many people to ‘more sustainable choices in holiday behavior or the willingness to pay more for sustainability’. How is it possible that more than half do not get warm or cold from these weather extremes? The NBTC itself has no answer to that.
“When it comes to holidays, consumers are turning the sustainability switch,” says Harald Buijtendijk, researcher in the field of sustainable tourism at Breda University of Applied Sciences. On holiday there is no time for climate concerns. This has been known for some time, according to Buijtendijk. There is also a scientific term for such behavior: the attitude-behavior-gapa gap between what people think and what they actually do.
Can the consumer be blamed for not yet choosing sustainably? Buijtendijk: “It is an argument that holiday providers can use for not becoming more sustainable. ‘As long as they continue to buy, we will continue to offer.’ But saying that consumers have to change and shift the problem to them is really no longer possible.”
Mascot with suitcases and bags for an airplane
It is also not surprising that consumers continue to choose less sustainable holidays – look at all the commercials for flight holidays and last-minute offers, says Buijtendijk. “We have come to take it for granted to go on holiday in a certain way.” He gives an example: “My daughter has a subscription to a nursery magazine. On the cover of the summer edition we see the magazine’s mascot standing in front of an airplane with suitcases and bags.”
The number of people who are willing to pay extra for a sustainable holiday has also decreased, the NBTC reports. But should ‘sustainable’ really cost more than ‘normal’? It mainly depends on how travel agencies present this, says Buijtendijk. “Many people have the idea that more sustainable holidays are always more expensive. The challenge for providers is to dispel this image and offer all holidaymakers, regardless of their budget, more sustainable holidays.” These holidays are currently still sold as something ‘exclusive’. “That has to change.”
Yet Buijtendijk expects a change in the future. “Research shows that destinations with a more temperate climate, such as Scandinavia, will become more popular,” he says. “To escape the heat and climate problems, people will be less likely to go on holiday to the south.”
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