Sustainability factor ‘a given’ among luxury travellers

Luxury travellers expect suppliers to have a sustainable policy in place as “a given”, according to the managing director of Elegant Resorts.

Lisa Fitzell cited figures from the tour operator’s recent travel survey, in which 99% of respondents said that sustainability was of very high importance.

She said: “[Clients] have become more conscious since the pandemic - we all have - and it's a given that [sustainability] needs to be a factor.

“Before the pandemic, we always asked the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) questions and [it was] less than 50%. So clearly, it's a given that you need to have [sustainable] policies [in place], you need to be reducing your carbon footprint, you need to be giving back.”

Bernard Carter, senior vice president and managing director for EMEA at Oceania Cruises, said sustainability was now “pretty central” to the cruise industry.

“When you look at what the cruise industry is doing, has done already and is planning to do in the future, there are so many measures that we’re pushing forward to create a zero carbon footprint in the years to come - buying carbon credits to help out in the early days while we transition to that, new fuel types, using shore power in a lot of the ports now - and all of these things will actually help local communities when the ships go in there,” he said.

Carter said the line had starting producing an easy-to-read document for travel agents highlighting its sustainable strategy and policies targeting single-use plastic, water recycling, local projects and whale watching initiatives.

He said: “We try to package it in a very easy to transfer [tool].

“Giving a travel agent a 75-page document isn't going to help but giving them three or four pages of key highlights of what we're doing [will].”

Meanwhile, Craig Jeffs, UK account director for Kerzner International, said sustainability is the topic the brand gets asked about the most.

He said: “When we look at opening new resorts, the impact it has on the environment and what do we do with that, that always has to be taken into account.

“Mandarina, for example, is an all-villa property in Mexico. When we were designing it, because it's in the jungle, we were very conscious that we didn't want to misplace any of the flora and fauna that was already around, so we built around it and incorporated it into the resort.

“And it comes back to experiences, because people like to give back. We're very lucky within the luxury travel industry that clients have got the ability to do that.

“The last 18 months has made everyone sit back and take stock of how we do things. It sounds really cheesy and corny, but it's within our own power to change that.”

Fitzell said other trends to emerge since the pandemic were higher booking value, with the operator’s average spend up 35% year to date and clients willing to spend an extra 30% on holidays, as well as a 25% increase in holiday duration and a move towards flexibility, with 98% of clients wanting to continue with the option to amend their holiday with no charge.

Carter said Oceania was witnessing a rise in bucket-list type holidays, with the line’s 2023 round-the-world sailing selling out in 24 hours.