Luxury travellers shun climate change
CANNES – Backpackers care more about the impact of their adventures on the environment than luxury travellers, according to a new report.
The inaugural International Luxury Travel Market (ILTM) white paper, unveiled at the ILTM conference in Cannes, revealed that wealthy holidaymakers are aware of climate change but do little about it.
The conference was intended to raise awareness of the green issue among suppliers at the top end of the travel market and was entitled ‘Climate Change and the Impact on the Luxury Travel Market’.
But report author Nancy Cockerell, the research director at The Travel Business Partnership, said the message was not yet getting through to customers.
“Few luxury customers volunteer to offset carbon emissions and are sceptical about carbon offset programmes. They’ve done less really than backpackers and they want to know where the money is going,” she said.
“Almost exclusively, the efforts to reduce carbons are coming from suppliers.”
Meanwhile, the report found that the UK and the US were losing out on luxury travellers because of the hassles and delays they encounter at immigration and customs.
The market for luxury travel, defined as a booking worth between £5,000 and £10,000, is up between 10-20 per cent year-on-year, with the Mediterranean, Middle and Far East the biggest beneficiaries.
Luxury travellers represent only three per cent of tourist arrivals, but 25 per cent of tourism receipts.
The white paper was conducted following intensive research, which including surveying 1,200 buyers.
by Jeremy Skidmore (www.jeremyskidmore.com
Ian Jarrett
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