How Travel Agents Can Offer More Sustainable Travel Options

How Travel Agents Can Offer More Sustainable Travel Options

How Travel Agents Can Offer More Sustainable Travel Options 500 220 James Hallam

In late 2024, Booking.com surveyed nearly 28,000 travellers who planned to travel for business or leisure over the next couple of years. Among other things, they asked these travellers about their key priorities when planning trips.

A major priority for many travellers – and one which appears to be getting more important with every passing year – is sustainability.

In another survey, around 75% of travellers said they want to travel more sustainably in 2025.

In this post we will briefly explain what “sustainability” means in travel and tourism, before discussing how travel agents and tour operators can offer more sustainable travel options.

What Makes a Trip Sustainable?

For many, “sustainability” is synonymous with CO2 emissions. The lower the emissions associated with a trip, the more sustainable that trip will be. This can mean travelling shorter distances with a greater reliance on less carbon intensive forms of transport. A train will likely be more sustainable than a plane, for example.

Yet there is more to sustainability than carbon emissions. Sustainability also means taking steps to protect the “essence” of a place, whether that is a unique local character or a fragile eco-system.

So, as well as reducing their carbon footprints, travellers want to tread lightly wherever they visit; to immerse themselves in the local culture while avoiding activities that might in some way compromise the environment or the local community.

How Travel Agents Can Offer More Sustainable Travel Options

Below we will discuss some ways that travel agents and tour operators can offer more sustainable travel options in 2025 and beyond.

Sustainable Travel and Accommodation

Ideally, you could prioritise destinations that your customers could easily reach by more sustainable modes of transport, such as coach or train. Yet to remain competitive in a crowded and fast-moving industry, you will likely always have to sell packages and experiences that will involve air travel.

So, instead of avoiding air travel entirely, aim to only work with airlines that have achieved sustainable certification, such as the IATA Integrated Sustainability Program. Also, remember that direct flights are always better than a series of connecting flights, as planes emit the most CO2 at take-off and landing.

Similarly, when it comes to accommodation, try to avoid the major resorts and hotel chains. Instead, look to the smaller, independent, and boutique accommodation providers – those who are more likely to employ locals and to source their food and other supplies from the local area.

Create Off-the-Beaten-Track Packages and Support Independent Business

“Vintage Voyaging” is a type of travel experience Booking.com predicted will become popular in 2025. This means “embracing a thrifty or vintage mindset when travelling”:

“It’s about immersing yourself in a place’s history and heritage. These trips treat the experience of travelling as a souvenir in itself, with vacationers seeking to enjoy deeper cultural connections with the destinations they visit by rejecting globalised consumerism and choosing to shop locally instead.”

How might a travel agent or tour operator offer such a “vintage voyaging” experience? Through creating packages that will allow customers to travel to emerging “off-the-beaten-track” locations, ideally with lots of independent shops, restaurants, and accommodation options.

Take a look at 10 such sustainable travel destinations the BBC recommended in early 2024.

Get Accredited

If you want to attract the green-minded traveller, then it will help to get accreditation to highlight your commitment to sustainability.

For example, the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) offers a certification scheme. If you join the scheme, you can also join the GSTC Market Access Program, a global network of hotels and accommodations that also have certification.

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