Sustainable travel is a hot topic – while the focus is on how hotels, airlines and airports are decarbonising and making their operations greener, cleaner and more sustainable, what about how this impacts the rest of the travel sector?
This focus reflects the current priorities of governments, consumers and other stakeholders and it will broaden from hotels, airlines and airports, the points of immediate B2C contact and interaction, to other parts of the travel sector, including B2B and B2C travel agencies and intermediaries, OTAs, consolidators and aggregators.
The most immediate and visible manifestations are options to pay for carbon offsetting and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), airline, hotel and brand sustainability policies and reports, and B2B and B2C disclosure of the carbon of a flight, tour or hotel.
As 2050 net zero targets approach, personal and corporate sustainability plans, requirements and policies will become increasingly prominent and play a greater role in travel choices.
Travel agencies and OTAs will need to be prepared to include sustainability metrics in proposals and quotes and to demonstrate steps they are taking to reach net zero by 2050.
For airlines, this could include complying with policies that require minimum levels of SAF-fuelled flights, seat density and fleet age.
For hotels, this could include minimum levels of renewably sourced energy, recycling, environmentally-friendly construction, engineering and interiors.
A key challenge for the travel sector will be balancing these requirements with pricing.
While consumers rank sustainability as a high priority, they are far less willing to pay extra for cleaner, greener and more sustainable travel.
This is reflected in relatively modest current take-up rates for carbon offsetting and SAF by consumers.
Complying with corporate 2050 net zero policies may provide a greater and more powerful impetus for sustainability to be as or more important than price.
Alan Polivnick is a partner at Watson Farley & Williams in the Sydney office with a local and regional focus on aviation law.
