Will Travelers Pay More for Green Trips? That's Not What Booking Holdings' CEO Is Seeing

Travelers say they want to be sustainable, but ultimately, price wins, according to experiments from Booking.com. 

“Even if the cheaper is less sustainable, many people still choose that. Everybody wants to be sustainable but they want somebody else to be sustainable,” said Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel, who was speaking at the Destination Europe event in Brussels on Thursday.

Fogel added that policymakers need to bring in the right policies to encourage greener choices.

“If elected officials would like to make certain rules, then that’s the privilege of the government to do that. We can’t make the rules. It’s up to the regulators to make these kinds of decisions and we want to follow it,” he said.

More than 1 million room nights of accommodation are booked on Booking Holding’s platforms each year. 

While Booking.com mainly connects accommodation providers with guests, Fogel said the company has worked to improve sustainability across its business. 

“We have come up with ways to make things more sustainable and in the long run increase profits. Changing lighting is one example – it saves emissions and saves electricity,” he said.

However, Fogel raised concerns about lack of emission reduction efforts in some parts of the world, especially as some countries seem to be rolling back their climate targets.  

“The last time I checked we had one atmosphere. When you get to the end of Europe, the atmosphere doesn’t change. Some parts of the world are not following climate goals. If another country is building two coal plants a week, we can do all we want to make sure we are more sustainable in our area. It’s not going to help in terms of the problem for the world,” he said. 

The event, organized by the European Travel Commission, Booking.com and Euronews, brought together policymakers and leaders from within the travel and tourism industry.

Policymakers and travel businesses discussed issues around climate change and tourism. Source: Skift. 

Europe's Climate Strategy

European Commission policy officers and politicians in the room spoke about a new EU strategy that is being put together behind the scenes.  

The EU's first sustainable tourism commissioner, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, called for the industry to come together to act quickly.

“The first step is listening. I want to hear from those on the ground in travel and tourism. I take this very seriously. Tourism must be developed responsibly,” he said.

In a panel discussion after Fogel’s comments, European Commission policy officer Magda Jopczyriska said that the European Union's new strategy on tourism aims to address some of these concerns. 

“To tell people how you travel is not the objection of the European Commission,” she said. “We are trying to make sure that everybody knows if there is an alternative. It doesn't mean you will need to take it. But you need to know that this alternative will exist.”

While many EU nations have their own tourism policies, the new European Agenda for Tourism is strategy for all member states. The EU will release it over the next few months and says it will include policies on climate change and funding to help sectors reduce emissions. 

Skift’s in-depth reporting on climate issues is made possible through the financial support of Intrepid Travel. This backing allows Skift to bring you high-quality journalism on one of the most important topics facing our planet today. Intrepid is not involved in any decisions made by Skift’s editorial team.