Not in my back yard
[UPDATES at bottom of post]
UK travellers have given a clear signal to the environmental lobby and our recently green-enthused political parties: we don't really care an awful lot about eco issues and will not alter our travel plans.
Or so say the findings of a poll carried out by TravelSupermarket.com.
The survey of 6,000 UK consumers found that half believed international travel is damaging the environment (good news so far in terms of recognising the apparent problem) but 93% have NOT changed where they go on holiday because of environmental concerns.
Oh.
Other stats:
- Almost half of those questioned do not feel guilty about flying
- Londoners feel the most guilty (25%)
- Two in five said they would never consider a holiday in the UK
- Almost 40% would not be prepared to pay green tax
It shouldn't really be alarming at all for travel companies. What do they expect?
Anyway, what should people do?
- Take fewer "exotic" holidays (that'll coincide with consumers not wanting UK holidays, then)
- Try "mental offsetting" - use energy saving lightbulbs and recycling
UPDATE: Click with Technology has carried out a serioues of Facebook polls in recent weeks. Here is a relevant one to this post.
What would stop you from going on holiday?
- Terrorist activity - 49%
- Exchange rates/£ worthless when travelling - 18%
- Environmental impact of flying - 11%
- Government taxation (eg ADP) - 11%
- Increased mortgage costs - 11%
Technorati tags: environment travelsupermarket
11 comments:
Kevin are you sure you meant 93% have changed thier plans? I would have thought the opposite.
Toby: Well spotted. And duly amended.
good point Kevin about travel companies expressing surprise. they have been happily flogging travel products for years and haven't given a damn until now, if at all.
We have seen similar results with recent polls ran on Facebook.
A recent poll asked - What would stop you from going on holiday?
Only 11% chose "Environmental impact of flying"
The most popular answer was "Terrorist activity" which got 49% of the votes.
Dan: What were the other choices and percentages?
I don't know much about travel supermarket.com, but presumably the more ethically / environmentally minded traveller would be unlikely to use a site like theirs? just a thought....
Paul: Possibly.
TravelSupermarket.com is one of the biggest online travel search sites in the UK.
they don't actually sell anything but send users to the source site.
ethically minded travellers may well use it to gauge prices, before checking out the green credentials of sites before they buy.
Fair enough. Although those who have made an ethical choice to avoid flying altogether are unlikely to look at any internet flight site.
And if the world is facing environmental collapse, people are probably flying off to look at it first... ;)
Paul: Absolutely...
VisitMeltingGlaciers.com, or something.
[We made that site up]
Here are the poll results in full...
What would stop you from going on holiday?
Terrorist activity 49%
Exchange rates - £ worthless when travelling 18%
Environmental impact of flying 11%
Government taxation (eg ADP) 11%
Increased mortgage costs 11%
Dan: thanks. i will put the stats in the original post as they are rather interesting. ta.
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