Sunday 17 October 2010

Choosing your next holiday destination: will it be green?

This is a quick survey to establish whether eco-friendly practices influence the choice of a holiday.

1. What is your key deciding factor when you pick a holiday?

A. Price
B. Location
C. Convenience
D. Impact on the environment

2. If the price was the same, would you favour a holiday destination with eco-friendly practices?

3. How much do you care about the environment right now?

My personal feeling is that currently, the majority of holiday places are not yet working towards preserving our planet. Unless you go to a specialist like Ecoescape, Ecofriendly tourist or Responsible Travel, it is difficult to find sustainable holiday options. The tourism industry needs to educate consumers about the impact of travel on the environment and it needs to help us make a difference. We all know how difficult a task this is, but we need to be shown how to do this. Do you agree?

Many thanks for answering those questions and feel free to add any comments. 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, I'd say that all 4 factor into it for me, but location, or really the combination of the accommodation quality and what the destination offers me that appeals, is what swings things. Of course, I try to travel by train as much as I can (see my blog link below for more on that) which helps cut the old carbon footprint, but it needs to get cheaper to make it more accessible for most people. The problem with a lot of 'orgnaised green travel' is that it often packaged as something quite aspirational and expensive. Plus the fact is most poeple don't like to be preached at about how to use their holiday, but this is something the industry could address better, as Ed Gillespie says we need to sell the sizzle more.
But all things being equal I would definitely choose the greener place of course. I do look out for good eco practices from hotels and preferably private apartment rentals which I tend to prefer.
Good questions though. Why don't you run this as a poll on polldaddy etc?
Cheers, Jools

JK said...

I would favour a eco friendly holiday although at the moment don't feel comfortabale enough with doing all the research around it. I owuld say Location is the priority for myself and my partner. Whatever fad we have this month dictates the holiday! I'm just about to head off to Rajasthan where I'm told there is a big problem with plastic bottles. I'll try to use a water bottle with purifcation tablets to save on plastic useage but will have to see how my body deals with that.

Jim said...

Most travellers certainly will be aware and concerned about the impact of their travel on the environment, but their budget will determine whether they actually choose to travel within their ideals.Most travellers would be just so excited to finally have saved the money, and to actually be off on their trip.
We booked our last tour with Gap Adventures confident that Gap Adventures would be designing their tours with minimal environmental impact.

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