The importance of a company’s carbon footprint is the lowest it has been in three years but sustainable credentials remain important, according to consumers surveyed in the Aito Travel Insights 2025 report.
The report surveyed nearly 14,000 responses from customers of 37 tour operators, travel agencies and tourist board partners within The Specialist Travel Association (Aito) and was carried out by customer data and insights company Spike.
The percentage of customers who agreed a specialist travel firm’s carbon footprint was important was 33%, slightly lower than in 2024 (37%) and 2023 (38%).
In total, however, 80% of respondents still ranked a company’s sustainable credentials as important to them, consistent with the last two years.
The number who believed travel was ‘always and often’ a force for good also remained high at 75% and consistent with 2024 (75%) and 2023 (74%).
The number of respondents who felt travel ‘always and often’ helped the local economy was 46%, the same as last year, but down on 2023 (54%).
Aito tour operators, speaking during a panel debate at the report’s launch in London, said sustainability could be a hard sell.
Kirker Holidays managing director Ted Wake said the cost of rail travel and the extra time required for journeys to destinations meant that when it came to booking trips it was hard to encourage clients to go by train despite its eco credentials.
He said: “We have a strong programme of rail holidays but even for us, it’s a bit of a stretch to persuade people to spend £1,000 more and go for an additional day.
“We are trying to be a bit more pragmatic; if you are concerned about the environment why don’t you go out by rail and come back by air? It’s an important part of our business – we will continue to promote it – but you have to be careful not to get too distracted by it.”
Sara Zimmerman, non executive director of escorted tours specialist Travel Department, stressed the importance of educating clients of the benefits of helping local communities through travel.
“There is a sense of guilt about the carbon footprint and that puts people off; we have to come up with strong ways of engaging customers so they understand the full breadth of what responsible travel means,” she said.