Most people don’t want the pursuit of sustainability to be a personal burden
Over lunch with WTTC’s chief Julia Simpson when she was in Singapore for the Aviation Festival Asia last month, a journalist piped up: “Sustainability is not a sexy topic. We know not to put that word in the headlines.” There was a murmur of agreement.
Sustainability is a curious thing. To say that people don’t care for it would be wrong. Our meeting with Julia, for instance, drew conversations heavy on responsible tourism development and progress in sustainable aviation. Almost all government activations and budgets now have a segment on responsible development. Even the private sector has become more strategic about what they are doing in relation to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and employs teams responsible for these initiatives.
Sustainability isn’t just on the lips of policymakers and business leaders. In Singapore, sustainability concepts and importance are emphasised in schools – even in pre-schools – through projects and class discussions. I am certain the same is seen in other countries.
Yet, most people don’t want the pursuit of sustainability to be a personal burden. In the space of travel and tourism, there is a disconnect between what travellers say about sustainability and the choices they ultimately make. WTTC’s Bridging the Say-Do Gap report notes that while travellers care about sustainability, data shows that cost and quality remain the dominant purchasing priorities.
There is also a difference in how sustainability news attract readers. I noticed that TTG Asia content on our own and public channels relating to hotel and tour operator efforts are more popular than those about measures taken by airlines to cut emissions. Perhaps this is because hotels and tour operators have been able to package their sustainable efforts into appealing experiences – farm-to-table lunches in the hotel’s own herb garden, electric vehicle-friendly road trips, interactions with artists of disappearing trades, etc. In contrast, sustainable aviation fuel and fuel burn may be too far removed from the travel experience or too technical to be everyone’s cup of tea.
Two heads are better than one, and I see an opportunity for travel and tourism organisations to work closer with content creators to better package and deliver the impact story in order to close the cost and conscience gap, and have all consumers understand that their travel decisions can impact the world’s journey to net zero and accept that the cost of responsible travel must be shared.
