Booking.com’s sustainability experiment

Travelers prioritize price over sustainability when booking, despite claiming eco-friendly preferences, Booking.com experiments show

At the Destination Europe event in Brussels, Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel emphasized that while people want to be sustainable, they ultimately expect others to take the lead. He called for policymakers to implement regulations that encourage greener choices, acknowledging that businesses alone cannot enforce such changes.

Key takeaways

• Price vs. sustainability: Travelers may claim to prefer eco-friendly options, but price remains the dominant factor in decision-making;
• Corporate efforts: Booking.com has introduced measures to enhance sustainability while maintaining profitability, such as energy-efficient lighting;
• Global challenges: Fogel pointed out that climate efforts are uneven worldwide, with some regions failing to reduce emissions, which undermines global progress;
• EU’s response: European policymakers are working on a new tourism strategy that includes climate policies and funding to help businesses lower emissions;
• Industry collaboration: The EU’s first sustainable tourism commissioner, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, urged the travel industry to work together to drive responsible tourism development.

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