WEBJET customers can now choose to offset their hotel bookings through the online travel agency’s Sustainable Traveller carbon offset program, making it the only Australian OTA to offer carbon offsetting for flight, hotel and holiday package bookings.
Webjet customers can now choose to offset their hotel booking when checking out, based on carbon calculations made by factoring in emissions associated with each room night spent in the accommodation, as well as hotel location, star rating and actual room size.
Once the booking has been offset, Webjet buys the equivalent number of carbon offsets to equalise the customer’s share of emissions, with 100% of the contributions poured into independently verified projects that focus on “positively mitigating climate change, protecting wildlife and nourishing communities”.
Examples include Indigenous fire abatement in the Northern Territory, introducing efficient cookstoves and native forest conservation in Africa and renewable energy in India.
“At Webjet we acknowledge our responsibility to operate in an environmentally responsible manner, and our customers are also increasingly looking for ways to tread more lightly as they travel,” Webjet OTA CEO David Galt said, adding that customer feedback has been “fantastic” so far.
“Year on year we’re seeing increased demand for the program as a whole, and since we soft launched hotels in March this year, over 1,600 hotel nights have already been offset,” he revealed.
First launched in 2020, more than 198,000 customers have opted into the eco-friendly program, with the number of carbon offset bookings increasing by 63% between March 2022 and February 2023 compared to the same period in 2021/22 – to find out more about the program, click here.
