A new report reveals that responsible travel is of growing importance to clients, with significant increases against last years findings.
Responsible travel is more important than ever to UK holidaymakers, with their concern for sustainability and human rights in the countries they visit growing strongly, according to a report by Holiday Extras.
The report found that the impact of each trip on the climate is 40% more important to holidaymakers year-on-year, with over a fifth of those polled (22%) stating it was a significant consideration on where they decided to visit – up from 16% in 2022.
The human rights record of the country being visited also grew in importance, seeing a 16% uplift against 2022, with 43% now considering it a significant factor in their decisions about where to travel.
The Good Trips Index, uses seven underlying indices[2] to create one convenient meta-index so holidaymakers can find destinations that meet their own ethical criteria. Included in the meta-index are measures of human rights, animal welfare, sustainability, LGBTQ+ rights, safety of women travellers, quality of life and press freedom.
Last year, Sweden topped the index; this year Denmark comes in at number one, with other large increases coming from Iceland, Kenya and a number of countries in South America including Uruguay, Argentina and Chile. The bottom three are Iran, Egypt and Yemen.
Commenting on the report, Simon Hagger, deputy CEO at Holiday Extras, said: “We developed the Good Trips Index to take the hassle out of responsible travel for our customers, who tell us in ever-greater numbers that ethical considerations play a large part in picking their destinations. Last year we found no single source for making responsible travel choices, so we pulled all of the best existing data together in one place and built it.”
“The growing importance of ethical travel is partly a consequence of the Qatar World Cup last year, when the human rights record of the host nation became as big a story as the football and led more holidaymakers to look into the impact of the destinations they chose. But it’s also clear that more people are concerned about the climate impact of their travel. Our mission is to make travel hassle-free, and that includes simplifying the research people are now doing to find a holiday destination that meets their own ethical criteria.”
