Booking.com has released new research on April 14, with insights gathered from more than 30,000 travellers across 32 countries and territories including Singapore, highlighting that the impact of their trips remains top of mind.
72% of Singapore travellers say they want to travel more sustainably over the coming 12 months, an increase over what was surfaced through the company’s 2021 data.
With 77% of Singapore travellers confirming that sustainable travel is important to them, over half of all local respondents (57%) cited that recent news about climate change has influenced them to make more sustainable travel choices.
32% of Singapore travellers say that the sustainability efforts of accommodation and transport providers play a strong role in their property and transport decisions respectively. In fact, 69% of Singapore travellers say they would be more likely to choose a sustainable accommodation – whether they were looking specifically for one or not.
48% of Singapore travellers confirm seeing a sustainable accommodation on an online travel site over the past year and 37% indicate that they actively look for information on the sustainability efforts of a property before booking. 54% of Singapore travellers have actually stayed in a sustainable accommodation over the past year.
Even with a vast majority (84%) of Singapore travellers intend to stay in a sustainable property at least once in the coming year, 30% of those who didn’t stay in a sustainable accommodation over the past year hadn’t known such properties existed – nearly one in three said they still didn’t know how to find them. However, if these properties are made easily accessible, 56% said they would review it, thus underlining the importance of making this sustainability information transparent and understandable for a broad audience of travellers.
Singapore travellers generally avoid busy and over-visited destinations, with 31% saying that they chose to travel outside of peak season and over a quarter (27%) choosing to go to a less popular travel destination over the last 12 months to avoid overcrowding.
For future trips, 37% are willing to exclusively travel outside of peak season to avoid overcrowding, and 64% revealed that they would avoid popular tourist destinations and attractions to ensure a more even dispersal of the impact and benefits of their visit. 29% would even be willing to choose an alternative to their preferred destination to help avoid overcrowding.
However, 43% struggle to find appealing less-crowded destinations and 41% are pessimistic about finding sustainable travel options in cities or other popular tourist destinations – creating an opportunity for travel platforms to work with accommodation providers in these destinations to help them progress on their sustainability journeys, highlight more sustainable options, and help consumers discover alternate times and places to take their trips, without sacrificing on experience.
54% of Singapore travellers say they want to leave the places they visit better than when they arrived, and 64% look for experiences that are representative of the local culture. 24% say they have actively familiarised themselves ahead of their trips with the local cultural values and traditions of the destination, with approximately one in four willing to pay more for travel activities to ensure they are giving back to local communities.
Singapore travellers are also mindful about how far they travel, how they get there and how they get around once there. 25% say they chose to travel to a destination closer to home to reduce their carbon footprint and one in four indicated that they researched public transport, even options to rent a bicycle, in their chosen destination. Train travel is preferred over car for longer distances by 27%, and 36% say they feel ashamed to fly because of its impact on the environment. When booking transportation for their trips, 39% actively look for sustainability information.
While 54% reveal that they don’t actively look for more sustainable transport options, it still has an impact on booking behaviour and customer satisfaction. 33% say sustainability efforts don’t play a strong role in their transport choices but report that it can influence their final choice. For the 28% who say that sustainability efforts play no role in their choice of transportation, they still feel good if knowing that the transport option booked follows sustainability best practices – this opens up a wide range of opportunities to grow consideration for more sustainable options across the entire trip experience.
