Excerpt from PhocusWire

As world political leaders meet at the COP26 Summit, in a quest to find common ground on climate change, a report finds access and cost are preventing consumers from making sustainable travel choices.

Research carried out by Blackbox for Lufthansa Innovation Hub (LIH) on Asean consumers reveals 41% did not know these sustainable travel options are available, while 40% said they didn’t know how to find them.

The research comes at a time of heightened awareness in sustainability during the pandemic which awoke a realization in many consumers of the damage done to the planet.

After access to sustainable travel choices, cost was highlighted as the next barrier to opting for sustainable travel, according to the report, with 27% saying they found the options too expensive.

Even before the pandemic when interest in, and awareness of, more sustainable travel was alive, consumers were not voting with their wallets.

Research published by LIH and Hopper in early 2020 revealed consumer sentiment on sustainable travel did not translate into action.

While 78% of consumers said they wanted to see sustainable travel alternatives and 73% say they were willing to pay for them, only 1% eventually offset their emissions.

In the latest report, consumers also highlighted transparency as a barrier to more sustainable choice with 24% saying they doubted the additional money paid for sustainable travel would go towards the stated purpose.

In addition, 23% say they find the options too constraining, 21% want more transparency on the benefits and 21% said the options were not sufficiently sustainable.

Further insight in the research reveals that 21% feel operators should carry the cost of sustainable travel while 19% say it is governments that should pay for sustainable travel.

Blame game

The report concludes that it’s not fair to just blame travelers and that the onus is on travel companies to offer more sustainable choices.

It points to research from BCG that reveals 87% of consumers expect travel companies to integrate more sustainable choices.

In addition to the heightened focus on sustainable travel, the report points to research from other sources around how consumers want the world to be fairer, as well as more sustainable.

The finding speaks to a greater scrutiny from consumers of the actions of big brands and governments.

A report earlier this year from Euromonitor coined the sentiment “restless and rebellious” with consumers expecting brands and governments to take a stand on issues such as Black Lives Matter and sustainability as well as act more responsible generally.

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