Connecting Your Business with Ethical Consumers: A Guide to Alignment
Ethical consumerism is an emerging trend introduced by McCrindle that “highlights the growing concern for the future of our planet and the need for sustainable practices”. The ethical consumer demonstrates a shift in priorities in favour of purchasing from organisations that prioritise transparency and sustainability. While the ethical consumer requires greater accountability of businesses, they do tend to take longer holidays than their less conscious counterparts. According to Tourism Australia’s Future of Demand Research on average the sustainability conscious visitor will stay 18 nights compared to the 13 nights of less conscious visitors.
What is the ethical consumer looking for?
74% want travel companies to offer more sustainable choices. Three emerging trends to be aware of include:
Transparency and credible evidence of sustainability - A growing consumer demand for clarity around the environmental impact of purchases has led to a number of changes within the tourism industry. Airlines such as Qantas and Virgin now list their carbon emissions and a new wave of sustainable culinary experiences have emerged to educate, inform and provide visitors with an opportunity to interact with produce. For more on this topic see our blog Food…the great connector where we discuss Gastronomy Tourism and the opportunity it presents for food security, circular economies and the agriculture sector.
Carbon Offsetting - Tourism represents roughly 8% of international carbon emissions. Visitors are turning to carbon offsets to neutralise the impact of their travel. These offsets may take the form of renewable energy projects or planting trees and are offered by businesses or private entities in the form of a fee dependent on the impact of travel.
Sustainable Accommodation - Typically built using eco-friendly materials and prioritising low impact practices such as energy and water conservation, sustainable accommodation is growing in popularity. Green Getaways is a leader within the sector listing accredited sustainable accommodation including glamping, eco resorts, tiny houses, cottages, treehouses, yurts and 5 star hotels.
How to service the ethical consumer
The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) Criteria provides a common global understanding of “sustainable tourism” and the minimum requirements that a tourism business should work towards. The figure below identifies the four themes within the criteria includes the key themes of:
sustainable management
socioeconomics
cultural, and
economic.
The Global Sustainable Tourism Council Criteria is a good starting point for businesses to understand the basic requirements for developing sustainability programming. For a National perspective refer to Austrade’s Sustainable Tourism Toolkit which provides a number of resources and guidelines for Australian businesses.
Certification and measuring outcomes
National: Eco Tourism certification recognised by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council for businesses and destinations. In 2022 Eco Tourism Australia launched the Strive 4 Sustainability Scorecard in partnership with Tourism Australia to encourage businesses to measure their sustainability based on the four pillars as aligned with the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria.
International: Earth Check Certified is recognised by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council and is the only global benchmarking and certification program for sustainable travel and tourism.
Sustainability is not a one off
Sustainability can often be misrepresented leading to “greenwashing”, a practice of falsely claiming businesses sustainability without accreditation or policies. True sustainability is a commitment to honouring our planet's natural resources, respecting what is lost, regenerating and conserving. The McCrindle research states two in five surveyed respondents found environmental credentials extremely or very important, and is already showing signs of increasing to more than half among Gen Z - the future of travel.
