As Earth Day approaches this weekend, Hotelbeds’ has reported a surge in the number of travelers booking eco-friendly hotels.
Its latest data shows that 30 per cent more people have actively chosen to book properties that are part of the TravelTech company’s Green Hotels programme over the past 12 months compared to the previous year. Criteria for Green Hotels properties, as certified by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, includes sustainable management and cultural impacts.
“Travelers are much more conscious of their carbon footprint and impact on the environment than ever before,” said Nicolas Huss, Hotelbeds’ CEO. “We started the Green Hotels program in 2000 with 15,000 properties and its since grown to more than 37,000 hotels, representing over 20 per cent of our business as more people actively seek to protect the planet while also exploring it.”
Hotelbeds is also growing its plastic-free hotel portfolio, and this has seen a huge 84 per cent increase over the past year versus the prior 12 months. Customers seeking both a green and plastic-free hotel has also grown by 30 per cent this past year.
The new data comes as Hotelbeds released its annual Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) report. The 2022 edition reports a number of achievements to lower the company’s environmental impact, including a reduction in energy by 48 per cent, waste by 76 per cent, water by 57 per cent and paper by 54 per cent in 2022 versus 2019. It is also making great strides in the Hotelbeds Forest, an initiative that aims to plant 10,000 trees this year to assist its fight against climate change and offset some of its carbon emissions.
Hotelbeds is committed to making travel a force for good. In addition to its hotel programs, the company has also been certified as a Carbon Neutral Organisation (scope 1 & 2) by Carbon Footprint Ltd since 2018. It was also one of the first travel companies to join The Climate Pledge Commitment, co-founded by Amazon, to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.
