April 11th, 2024, Samuel Tan
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) recently extended its partnership with Agoda for a third consecutive year. The renewal will see the online travel agency donate USD$1 to WWF for every booking on its platform with selected properties in tourist destinations under Agoda’s Eco Deals Programme, which will go towards supporting wildlife conservation efforts in eight Southeast Asian countries.
Travellers who wish to support this conservation drive can choose to book a stay at participating properties under the Eco Deals section of its global booking site. But to what extent do travellers across the globe prioritise choosing sustainable travel accommodation options over regular ones? And how much more are they willing to pay for more eco-friendly hotel stays?
Latest YouGov Surveys research across 17 international markets has found that over half of consumers in APAC (55%) say they are willing to pay more to stay at an environmentally-sustainable hotel compared to a regular one, while only around two-fifths of consumers in EMEA (41%) and AMERS (38%) say the same.
Consumers who are willing to fork out a 10% green premium make up around a quarter in APAC (27%) and EMEA (23%) but just a fifth in AMERS (20%), while the percentage of those willing to spend over 10% more to stay at eco-friendly hotels make up 28% in APAC compared to 18% in EMEA and AMERS.
Across the 17 international markets polled in the study, consumers who resided in the UAE, India, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Mexico were more likely than not to express willingness to pay more for a sustainable hotel stay.
Close to three-quarters of consumers in the UAE (73%) are willing to fork out more, ahead of almost seven in ten Indian consumers (69%), and three in five consumers in Indonesia, Hong Kong (both 61%) and Mexico (60%).
Notably, those willing to spend more than 10% more for a greener hotel booking, made up almost half of consumers in the UAE (48%), and two-fifths in India (39%) and a third in Indonesia (32%).
Among markets in Europe, Italy has the highest proportion of consumers who are willing to pay more for a sustainable hotel stay at 45% – and just above the international average (43%).
Meanwhile, willingness to spend more to stay at eco-friendly hotels in other markets stands at around two in five in Australia and Singapore (both 42%), Spain (41%), Poland and Denmark (both 38%) and Sweden (37%), but closer to one in three in Britain (36%), Canada and Germany (both 35%) and France (34%), ahead of just 28% in the USA.
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Methodology: YouGov Surveys: Serviced provides quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18+ years in 17 markets with sample sizes varying between 510 and 2,044 for each market. All surveys were conducted online during January 2024. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.
Cover Photo from WWF