Two Trends Driving Climate Strategies for Travel Companies
Guest Author: Christina Beckmann, Co-founder, Tomorrow’s Air
As the leader of Tomorrow’s Air, the first carbon removal collective in travel, I am lucky to regularly meet with travel businesses of all sizes about their climate strategies. Recently, I’ve noticed two themes emerging around climate strategies, which might provide some helpful context for Tourism Cares members grappling with similar discussions in their own businesses. Let’s take a deeper look!
Theme #1: Shifting from Climate Claims to Climate Impact
Recently, travel businesses have shown up with a greater enthusiasm for contributions to climate projects that drive meaningful impact in addition to, or in place of, solely funding climate projects that enable bold claims around emission compensation.
This is likely a result of recent news questioning the effectiveness of compensation-driven strategies that rely on conventional carbon offsets. Examples include the investigation that revealed more than 90% of avoided deforestation credits are ineffective and the analysis that many renewable energy credits fail to deliver all the benefits they claim.
However, the fear of making a poor investment is not the only factor in play.
Companies will also need a portfolio of solutions to help stabilize our climate, focusing on finding synergies between multiple projects and creating a portfolio that best reflects their business while resonating with their customers.
With this broader, multifaceted approach, businesses will find themselves with a more diverse range of actions and support emerging solutions such as carbon dioxide removal technologies and sustainable aviation fuel. It is also important to recognize that this shift is not happening solely in the travel sector. Global food and beverage company Nestlé broadcasted earlier this month its shift away from the use of offsets to achieve carbon-neutral brands, focusing instead on actual emissions reductions in its operations and value chain.
For travel businesses considering this shift themselves, here are some examples of companies that have already taken the plunge:
The Travel Corporation’s 2022 Impact Report documents how the company – which sees millions of guests per year – replaced its “goal of carbon neutrality by 2030 with the more ambitious goal of net zero by 2050, and received validation by the Science Based Targets initiative on our near-term, long-term, and net zero targets.”
CAS Trips, a company focused on educational experiences for students, has embraced transparency in sharing its approach to climate action. They shared, “We are constantly interrogating our approach to sustainable travel and have come to believe that claiming carbon neutrality alone is not a sufficient or accurate goal for protecting the environment and promoting responsible business practices.” The company remains dedicated to its Glasgow Declaration commitments and put a plan in place that includes measuring and reducing emissions, plus contributing through Tomorrow’s Air to support climate technologies that offer carbon dioxide removal with permanent storage.
The European Travel Commission (ETC) is a membership organization that has been promoting and shaping European tourism since its founding in 1948. Today, its members include the National Tourism Organizations of 34 countries in Europe along with numerous travel businesses from Google and Expedia to Airbnb and Emirates, among many others. The ETC’s Climate Action Plan was developed with the support of The Travel Foundation, and also includes a contribution to carbon removal via Tomorrow’s Air, signaling to its broad audience the importance of supporting carbon removal technologies alongside emissions reduction measures. ETC COO Teodora Marinska commented, “By integrating sustainable practices such as Tomorrow’s Air into our operations, we aim to create a positive ripple effect that extends far beyond our organization.”
Theme #2: Make Climate Contributions Available and Accessible to all Guests
During my 20-year tourism career leading and participating in sustainability-focused panels, webinars, and events, there is one question that travel business leaders always bring up in some form or another: Sustainability is great, but will travelers really pay for it? There is also a fear that some guests might be annoyed to see higher fees or ask for additional contributions to climate projects related to making the travel product more sustainable.
While these are still common concerns, travel companies seem to be behaving more boldly. Coming out of the pandemic, hundreds of travel businesses joined the Glasgow Declaration, a “shared commitment to unite all stakeholders in transforming tourism to deliver effective climate action” in support of the global commitment to halve emissions by 2030 and reach net zero as soon as possible before 2050. For many businesses, gaining the executive support necessary to sign the commitment was a significant challenge. Now, these businesses are defining the new policies and processes that will bring their commitment to life, and they have realized that their customers will need to be part of the process, too.
Recent consumer research suggests that many of today’s travelers are actively seeking sustainability and climate policies from their travel suppliers. Booking.com’s sustainable travel research released in April 2023 (33,000 travelers surveyed from 35 countries) reveals that:
76% of travelers say they want to travel more sustainably over the coming 12 months.
43% are willing to pay extra for travel options with a sustainable certification.
51% of travelers believe there are not enough sustainable travel options.
74% want travel companies to offer more sustainable travel choices (up from 66% in 2022).
A similar study focused on U.S.-based travelers published by The Vacationer reinforces the Booking.com results, indicating 71% of American adults are willing to pay more (from less than $50 up to $250 more) for a family vacation to lower their carbon footprint from the trip.
However, the Booking.com results also showed that while 43% are willing to pay more for sustainable options, 49% believe sustainable options are too expensive. Skift Research found in its December 2022 U.S. Travel Tracker survey that only 23% of travelers actually paid extra for a more sustainable travel option in the past 12 months.
These results help confirm that it’s safe for companies to engage their customers in paying for climate action and to support improved sustainability commitments. While broad consumer uptake of spending on sustainability and climate isn’t totally there yet, people are certainly aware and have the right intentions, and are not offended to see companies making positive sustainability and climate efforts. The problems arise when companies overreach, make sweeping claims, and enter the murkiness of greenwashing.
Transparency in sharing the company’s sustainability journey and describing its climate strategies seems to be an effective way to engage with sustainability and climate action.
Beyond these large-scale surveys, I can share my experience with companies incorporating transparent sustainability add-ons with Tomorrow’s Air for their travelers. For example, in working with more than 10,000 travelers paying between $10 and $50 to fund carbon dioxide removal with permanent storage, complaints do not arise when the fee is embedded into the trip cost. In fact, only one company has ever reported a single traveler questioning the fee. For travel company partners who have included a payment option (versus an embedded payment) over the last twelve months, their observation is that 50% of their travelers are taking the option to order carbon dioxide removal with permanent storage. See more results in Tomorrow’s Air 2022 Impact Report.
In essence, I see these overarching themes as very supportive of each other: We have broader acknowledgment and strong examples of companies focusing on contributions for impact versus simply compensations to support claims. And, we have consumers who are loudly voicing interest in sustainability and climate action but may still be wary of costs.
So, what can we take away from this new information?
Having a sustainability policy that includes climate action is welcomed by travelers and will become more necessary as time goes on. Consider taking climate action as an expression of your company’s commitment to providing the best for your guests and permit yourself the freedom to support a range of actions that align with your values and services.
Start small with your consumers. For companies concerned that their customers are too price-sensitive due to inflation, regardless of their sustainability aspirations, start with something small and optional. Gauge customer reactions and use that feedback to tailor a sustainability and climate strategy.
Above all else, get moving to engage your teams and begin learning now. I recently met with the CEO of a large company that is looking to test the results with its first climate action partner and assemble a broader portfolio that includes carbon dioxide removal. He remarked, “I had to do a lot of convincing to get this first partnership in place, but now we’re thinking, ‘How can this be expanded?’”
Of course, consider supporting climate-saving technologies in your portfolio alongside emissions reductions and support for local conservation projects. Tomorrow’s Air offers an easy on-ramp for travelers and businesses to help expand the use of climate-stabilizing technologies with individual payments as low as $10 for individuals and custom packages available to businesses.
Interested in learning more?
Get involved with Tomorrow’s Air, a global collective supporting carbon removal innovators working to clean up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it permanently. Every purchase supports climate and carbon removal education and orders carbon removal with permanent storage. It is owned by the Adventure Travel Trade Association, a 1% for the Planet member.
Learn more about the Science-based Targets Initiative which launched the public consultation for its Beyond Value Chain Mitigation (BVCM) guidance in June 2023. “Beyond value chain mitigation” refers to all the investments and actions a business takes beyond its Science Based Targets (SBTs) to mitigate emissions outside of its value chain. This would include projects currently issuing carbon credits plus a broader range of climate projects, such as advocacy, NGOs, R&D, that would not be part of carbon markets. The final guidance will be released on July 30 and is sure to support company decision-making.
Visit the Future of Tourism Coalition Toolkit, which has more resources, tools, and ways to take action for your company around climate change.