UK families willing to pay extra for holidays to offset their carbon footprint

Travel survey reveals that 55% of families would be willing to pay more to make their trip sustainable and over a third would accept a 10% increase on the price of their holiday to make it carbon neutral.

Our survey of over 3,000 members in the Your Baby Club network has revealed that taking environmentally-friendly holidays is of growing importance to families.

85% think that sustainable travel is an important issue, almost 3/4 (74%) said they want to travel more sustainably following the pandemic and 40% would like to stay in sustainable accommodation over the next year.

These attitudes are also influencing consumer decisions. Over 75% of families see an airline taking steps to be being ‘cleaner’ as important in choosing to fly with them.

If the price is right

Despite 37% of families willing to pay up to a 10% increase on the price of their holiday to make it carbon neutral and over 3/4 feeling either positive or neutral about a compulsory carbon tax in the future, it’s clear that cost could still be an obstacle.

85% of families consider price the most important factor in whether they would carbon offset their holiday and 54% are only willing to pay an increase of less than 5%.

80% also said they would choose a carbon offset holiday over a standard package if it was included somewhere in the price.

Doing their part

Even though 40% of families stated they are prepared to make lifestyle compromises to benefit the environment and almost 60% get annoyed when somewhere they are staying prevents them from being sustainable, over half are yet to book an environmentally-friendly holiday.

47% have also never used a service to offset the CO2 generated by their holidays, with over a third (36%) admitting they didn’t know these services existed.

So, will we see sustainable travel intent from the pandemic turn into real action?

Well 80% of families said they would travel to less popular destinations and attractions to ensure they aren’t contributing to overcrowding.

70% of families also intend to use reusable water bottles instead of bottled water while travelling, with 68% wanting to reduce their general waste and a further 63% looking to reduce energy consumption by turning off A/C and lights when not in their hotel room.

The signs are positive but there is still a way to go for sustainable travel to become a mainstream choice: family-friendly services, cost, location and brand reputation are all considered more important factors than green credentials for families when choosing their holiday package.