Heightened awareness of sustainable tourism has made this a paramount concern for travellers and destinations alike. Eleni Skarveli (Greek National Tourism Organisation - GNTO), Jonas Løvschall-Wedel (Wonderful Copenhagen), John Fraher (Bloomberg News) and Tanny Por (Visit Greenland) contrast approaches to fostering responsible practices, building trust with visitors and embedding sustainable messaging into communications.

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Understanding Visitor Behaviour

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Tourism constitutes 8% of global CO2 emissions, making it crucial that the sector is actively involved in sustainable development. Climate change presents an even stronger motivation for destinations to take this issue seriously and ensure their preservation for future travellers. Despite this, and with wildfires and other natural disasters making global headlines, travellers tend to have habitual patterns which are difficult to alter. Nevertheless, it is widely expected that long-term destination choices will be affected by this media exposure. In Europe, this is anticipated to result in traveller numbers increasing in Northern Europe at the expense of those in the Mediterranean.

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While tourism's continued growth presents underlying challenges for destinations, most travellers express a desire to act responsibly; 82% of people worldwide want to act more sustainably, yet only 22% actually change their behaviour. This highlights a significant gap between intention and action, indicating a need for more effective strategies to bridge this divide. This makes it essential to understand the factors that influence travellers’ decisions, including their motivations and the barriers that prevent them from adopting sustainable behaviours.

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Given that travel is often viewed as a ‘human right’, it is likely that travellers ignore the long-term implications of their travel choices, focusing instead on immediate cost and convenience. Advancements in technology are also sometimes seen as a silver bullet, making it easier to ignore the long-term implications of travel. A lack of transparency in mitigation actions, such as sustainable aviation fuel and climate offsetting also means that, besides a small group of affluent travellers, the majority of visitors do not see the value in paying extra for these symbolic actions. Yet, with mature destinations around the world enacting sustainability taxes for visitors, it is becoming very clear that small additions to the total cost of a holiday do not significantly affect visitors when they understand the rationale for their implementation.

1. The Climate Crisis Resilience Fee in Greece is a nightly fee per room, with the cost determined by the hotel category and season. A levy will also be introduced for cruise passengers.
2. The Tax for Sustainable Tourism in the Balearic Islands is a daily rate that varies by accommodation type and season, with exceptions for children under 16, cruise passengers on boats based in the Balearic Islands and a 50% discount from the ninth day. Since its introduction in 2016, 297 projects have been funded by the €861 million collected by the tax.
3. The Tourism Environmental Sustainable Levy in the Seychelles is a nightly rate per person that varies depending on the size of the accommodation establishment, with exemptions for airline staff, children under 12 and Seychelles citizens. The revenue generated by this levy is spent on marine conservation projects.
4. The International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy in New Zealand is a NZ$100 levy on international arrivals, with exemptions for small Pacific Island nations, and collected as part of the immigration process.

At the same time, achieving sustainability is a complex challenge that needs to be framed through local contextualisation. For example, as a destination that can only be accessed by flight or boat, the opening of Greenland's first international airport in its capital city, Nuuk, on 28th November 2024, marked a significant moment, enabling access from beyond the traditional gateways of Denmark and Iceland. This includes a landmark direct route from New York. At face value, this appears to conflict with sustainability principles due to an increased environmental impact, with a projection that visitor numbers would double if all flights were filled. Yet, the new airport also positively impacts the quality of life for local communities. By reducing the reliance on supply ships that arrive eight times a year to Greenland's east coast, food and other products will arrive more frequently. There is also an educational role to be had in increasing access to Greenland. As a frontline destination experiencing the effects of climate change, visitors will be able to witness firsthand the melting icebergs and become more aware of the urgent need for them to act more responsibly across daily life. As such, being able to attract a broader mixture of policymakers, journalists and visitors, enables Greenland to be a destination that inspires lasting change and gets people to incorporate sustainability into their daily lives. This shows that despite the initial travel-related carbon footprint, it can generate a purposeful shift in long-term behaviour.

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Enabling Change Through Marketing

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While economic models prioritise continued growth, enacting the right framework for managing tourism without negatively impacting communities and the environment requires careful thought. Destinations can use their brand narratives to create more authentic and engaging messaging, highlighting their unique cultural aspects. This plays a crucial role in enhancing relationships with visitors. However, it requires taking a strong stance to ensure the right visitors are attracted. To do so, DMOs need to decide whether they wish for mass tourism to continue, respecting the democratisation of travel, or instead wish to focus on higher value tourists who are genuinely interested in experiencing their destination in a responsible manner.

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Regardless of the approach taken, marketing plays a key role in inspiring mindset shifts by educating visitors about the impact of their holiday. This involves highlighting the consequences of climate change, conveying the value of responsible travel and providing information about local initiatives and actions that visitors can take which benefit the local environment and communities. Crucially, these communications need to avoid the trap of greenwashing, which can lead to cynicism and mistrust. As such, ensuring DMOs are both inspirational and educational, while also remaining a trusted source of information, presents a significant challenge in striking the right tone of voice, especially when repositioning destinations or attempting to eliminate seasonality. These sorts of educational campaigns also need time for visitors to reflect upon them, making them unable to have an immediate effect. Nevertheless, they are a valuable tool for changing perceptions in the long-term.

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In an effort to inspire change, Wonderful Copenhagen, as the 2023 UNESCO World Architecture Capital, focused communications around building the city of tomorrow, sustainable infrastructure and the city's clean harbour, encouraging people to look at how they travel, the choices they make and their footprint. Similarly, having grown from 20 initiatives upon launch in 2022 to 50, GNTO's Sustainable Greece platform helps visitors learn about sustainability initiatives in Greece, encourages the Greek industry to embrace positive change and attracts support from trade partners to sell holidays that place responsibility at their centre. This three-pillar approach brings a cohesive and collaborative approach to sustainable destination marketing, with all partners working together to achieve the same goals. The Sustainable Travel AGORA complements this platform, bringing together sustainability experts from across the sector, including associations, tour operators, destinations and the media, to facilitate knowledge sharing with local communities. Alongside the communication front, the Greek government, as part of their EU Resilience Fund, is focused on investing in climate resiliency across key infrastructure to support the longevity of tourism. This is especially important given that tourism is forecast to represent 23.6% of Greek GDP by 2033 and welcoming guests is part of the country's culture.

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Nudging Techniques

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Beyond promotion, nudging, a subtle way of influencing behaviour, has emerged as a powerful tool. This is where positive encouragements are offered to inspire responsible actions. With tourism about getting away from daily life, it provides an opportune moment where people are willing to try new things and gain a different perspective about the world. The success of these initiatives relies on making sustainable choices easy, fun and rewarding. Instead of relying on people's morals or strict rules, these techniques make sustainability feel more accessible and appealing. They also effectively demonstrate how the cumulative impact of travellers taking small steps can make a big difference in making tourism a force for good.

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While DMOs don't own the visitor journey, they have a valuable role to play in mobilising partners, with many keen to collaborate in contributing to a more prosperous destination. Wonderful Copenhagen's month-long CopenPay initiative is a prime example, offering free experiences at 26 attractions in exchange for visitors taking a responsible action, such as using public transport or picking up rubbish. Aligning with the DMO's slogan of "Don't just come here. Become here", this pilot project helped encourage interactions between visitors and locals, in alignment with the city's new tourism strategy. This initiative was successful because it was simple and helped to reframe the discussion away from overtourism; instead focusing on encouraging responsible tourism. It effectively demonstrates that people will engage in sustainable activities if they are easy to do, even if for half having a reward was the main motivation. By engaging with the media, destinations can reach a wider audience and raise awareness about the importance of sustainable travel, an element that is often hidden from mainstream reporting about tourism. CopenPay featured in over 2,000 articles which started a global discussion on how to travel differently.

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Nudging can also be embedded in brand messaging itself. For example, Visit Greenland's Pledge Towards Better Tourism is a core part of the destination's brand refresh. This aligns tourism with key values and integrates the region's unpredictable weather and indigenous communities into storytelling. Destinations such as Palau, New Zealand, Iceland and Îles de la Madeleine (Canada) have all undertaken similar efforts to encourage responsible tourism. Recognising that most destinations can't be all-encompassing, these sorts of narratives influence visitors right at the start of the visitor journey. In the case of Greenland, the pledge presents the destination as a place for adventure travellers who are open to experiencing the unexpected challenges that come from visiting a remote and fragile location. While inspiring the right travellers to visit, an educational component builds an invested interest in the destination's future. This subtle approach makes sustainability an intrinsic part of the travel experience, rather than an optional extra.