The concept of eco-friendly tourism is growing in worldwide. More and more travelers want to contribute to the conservation and preservation of the environment, thus are place an accent on eco-friendly practices of hotels they stay in. With the peak of travel season around the world, it’s important to know the shift in traveler’s conscience can affect global hotel industry. Did you know that a majority of Malaysian globetrotters are conscious about the environment and that determines which hotel they set their foot in when travelling? Hint: Green Hotels. There’s more.
A recent survey conducted online in March by Agoda.com asked 57,000 Agoda customers asked how they felt about environment initiatives by hotels and their efforts into the same. Around 58% of all travelers indicated that they preferred hotels that claimed to be environment friendly, while a 39% indicated that they were willing to fork out an extra US$10 or more per night for the same. Another 7% said they would cough up an extra $5 or more, while around 31% said they were happy to be in an environmental friendly hotel without having to pay anything extra.
The survey puts Chinese travelers (79%) ahead in the ranks of Asian travelers, who preferred to stay in eco-friendly hotels. Disappointingly when it came to shelling out from their wallets, only a 35% of travelers were enthusiastic saying they would pay US $5 or more per night to stay in a green hotel. While Malaysian holiday goers, (60.64%) indicated that they preferred eco-friendly hotels, and around 42.2% were willing to pay more than US $10 to US $50 per night to stay in a green hotel. Another 15.2% said they were willing to pay up more than US $50 per night. So if you’re into an eco-friendly business, then you should know that Malaysian travelers are the committed to make the eco-friendly hotel industry more thriving!
Surprisingly, travelers from the Netherlands, Denmark and Great Britain were least bothered about the same. Only 35% of Danish and Dutch travelers and 38% of UK travelers preferred a green-hotel. While 57%, 47% and 47& respectively, indicated that they would not pay anything extra to stay in an eco-friendly hotel.
When asked about which environmentally-healthy hotel practices, did they like the most, a majority of travelers picked ‘use of environmentally-friendly cleaning products and recycling’ as one of their favorite. The least popular were ‘reusing towels and sheets’ (No surprises there!).
