The World Tourism Organization defines sustainable travel as “tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of its visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities.”
In a nutshell, it means travelling in a way that minimizes our negative impact on the planet so that the destination’s cultural and natural environments can be maintained long-term.
The Outlook Group and Toluna collaborated to conduct a study to understand awareness and practices around sustainable travel in India. The key objective was to understand people’s current behaviour with respect to leisure travel and what all aspects of sustainable travel they know and practice themselves.
Fieldwork – July - August 2023
2nd edition after 2021
Target Group: 18+ respondents who take at least one leisure trip a year
1592 interviews using a self-filled questionnaire
50+ cities including metros and non-metros in India
Conducted for the Outlook Group by Toluna
73 per cent prefer exploring one place more deeply by spending at least 3 – 4 days in a trip rather than exploring multiple places and not spending more than 1 – 2 days at each place.
63 per cent have become more aware about ‘sustainable tourism’ in the last 10 years.
41 per cent are aware of green labels/certificates and almost all of them univocally said they would prefer to choose an accommodation or travel operator who has won awards for responsible tourism.
58 per cent have opted for an ‘eco-friendly’ accommodation in the past.