How to Create the Sustainable Travel Products Customers Want

The report identifies a significant 'say-do gap' in the travel and tourism industry, where consumers express a preference for sustainability but often fail to book sustainable options due to roadblocks like limited availability, price premiums, and low credibility. It categorises sustainable products into compensation, reduction, and zero-emissions levers across aviation, hospitality, and car rental sectors. To increase adoption, the report recommends that companies develop more prototypes, simplify the purchasing experience, and improve transparency in emissions reporting.

• There is a 'say-do gap' in the travel and tourism industry, defined as the discrepancy between travellers' stated attitudes or intentions to travel sustainably and their actual booking or buying behaviour.
• Six primary roadblocks hinder the adoption of sustainable travel products: limited availability of comparable options, lack of consumer awareness, low credibility of sustainability claims, price premiums, cumbersome purchasing experiences, and a lack of rewards or acknowledgement for green choices.
• Sustainable travel products are structured around three decarbonization levers: compensation (carbon offsets), reduction (industry-specific mitigation like SAF or energy efficiency), and zero emissions (non-pollutant technologies).
• In the aviation sector, sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) currently represent less than 1% of total fuel demand but offer an average CO2 reduction potential of 80%.
• The car rental and ride-sharing sector is relatively advanced in offering embedded zero-emissions products through battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), which achieved 71% of global sales for all cars in 2021.
• Sustainable product configurations are classified as ancillary (voluntary add-ons), bundled (packages with limited opt-out), or embedded (sustainability as a core offering).
• Case studies indicate that target customer segments significantly impact adoption; for example, United Airlines found that SAF contributions from corporate customers were 15 times more effective at reducing emissions in one year than retail carbon offsets over the programme's lifetime.
• Evidence from other industries, such as retail and fashion, shows that sustainable products can outperform traditional alternatives; Unilever's 'sustainable brands' grew 69% faster than its other brands.
• To overcome the say-do gap, the report recommends a development cycle consisting of developing sustainable products, providing frictionless experiences, improving value propositions, rewarding customers, increasing awareness, and improving transparency.

APA

World Economic Forum (2022). How to Create the Sustainable Travel Products Customers Want. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_How_to_Create_the_Sustainable_Travel_Products_Customers_Want_2022.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. How to Create the Sustainable Travel Products Customers Want. 2022. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_How_to_Create_the_Sustainable_Travel_Products_Customers_Want_2022.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=How to Create the Sustainable Travel Products Customers Want |date=December 2022 |url=https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_How_to_Create_the_Sustainable_Travel_Products_Customers_Want_2022.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2022how, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{How to Create the Sustainable Travel Products Customers Want}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2022}, month = dec, url = {https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_How_to_Create_the_Sustainable_Travel_Products_Customers_Want_2022.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }