Decarbonisation and sustainability are among the greatest challenges to overcome for accommodation providers, according to The European Travel Barometer published this week.
Accommodation marketplace Booking.com partnered with data platform Statista to find out the priorities for European hoteliers and holiday rental providers ahead of this year’s peak season.
The survey highlighted that while there is a growing interest in sustainable travel products and services from consumers, only 42% of European accommodation providers feel well prepared to tackle the challenges of decarbonisation this year.
But the level of preparedness was higher among British hoteliers, with 51% saying they were well prepared.
Willingness to invest in these fields, however, is a little lower than the European average at 28% in the UK versus 32% in the EU.
Driven by rising energy costs, the top area for sustainability investment is energy efficiency (57%), followed by water preservation and waste reduction (each with 30%).
Although decarbonisation and sustainability were among the top 10 concerns, high energy bills remain the biggest challenge for European hoteliers, with British accommodation business owners stating a similar level of concern to the EU average (82% versus 86%).
In the UK, energy cost concerns were followed by anxieties about overall economic conditions as the world deals with a cost-of-living crisis triggered by inflation, rated as a major challenge by nearly half of
respondents (47%), followed by the cost of staff (41%).
The barometer is based on a survey of 200 executives and managers representing the UK accommodation sectors, and it draws on
the findings of an EU Accommodation Barometer, which included an additional 1,040 participants.
