NEW YORK -- The question of whether consumers care enough about the environment to choose "green" or "sustainable" travel options is largely unresolved because traveler behavior is inconsistent when it comes to wanting or buying a green trip.
Michael Kaye, president of Costa Rica Expeditions, said during a recent panel discussion on "responsible luxury" that consumers "act differently when doing surveys and choosing vacations."
He said: "My experience is that [sustainability] has zero to do with the first choice" to buy specific products or destinations.
"And," he said, "I wonder if sustainability is important for a return visit. ... People return because the [first] experience was nourishing, and sustainability practices are only one factor."
Steve Fitzgerald, CEO of CC Africa, which sponsored the Responsible Luxury Summit in New York, expanded on Kaye's remarks and referenced two CC Africa research projects. When travelers were interviewed, he said, they were "passionate about greenness," but in another environment "with their guard down, they didn't give a damn."
Nevertheless, guests can learn to care. He said CC Africa's reputation for conservation didn't matter to the first-time guests, but "their reason for returning and recommending [CC Africa] is sustainability."
Participants in the panel discussion looked for the "tipping point," meaning the time where consumers really would care enough about ecology and cultural integrity to choose travel suppliers and destinations based on sustainable practices
On one hand, Costas Christ, global travel editor of National Geographic Adventure and the panel moderator, said he would "wager we are at a new level of critical consciousness, potentially at a breakthrough point" for a critical mass of travelers who "do give a hoot" about sustainability in tourism.
On the other, Dorinda Elliott, deputy editor, special projects for Conde Nast Traveller, said her magazine's research showed that "readers are more interested," but that the industry is "not yet" at the tipping point.
(The subject of sustainability and guest interest was also discussed during an earlier panel discussion staged by New York University's hospitality school. For more, see "Luxury hoteliers talk technology, conservation at NYU panel.")
To get to that point, panelists concluded it was up to the industry to educate the public about the value of sustainable practices and to promote suppliers with good practices. The goal is to have consumers asking what they receive rather than what they sacrifice by buying green.
Panel members dispensed with their session theme ("Can Luxury Travel Be Responsible Travel?") in a sentence or two: There is no connection, or perhaps, said Joel Zack, president of Heritage Tours, it is easier for luxury travel to be more responsible because there is so much money involved.
The group ratcheted up to: Is there such a thing as sustainable travel? No, that's an oxymoron, said Amy Farley, senior editor of Travel + Leisure.
Recycling can be fun, too, said Stanley Selengut, owner of Maho Bay Camps, St. John, U.S.V.I. He's established crafts centers where invited glass blowers create glassworks from discarded glass and old sheets and paper are reused in various projects, then guests can buy the "new" objects.
Finally, Christ said, he wanted to lay the "towel thing" to rest. Not washing linens daily may be a gimmick saving the hotelier money, but it still takes chemicals out of the system and saves water.
"But we could strongly endorse" every-other-day washings, he said, if the saved money were donated to community projects.
Would that generate news coverage? he asked media panelists, who responded with affirmative head nods.
To contact the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Nadine Godwin at [email protected].