Speakers at Abta’s Delivering Sustainable Travel conference on Wednesday (2 March) agreed consumers’ appetite for understanding sustainability and climate change had not been diminished by the pandemic, while Covid has shown they will listen to scientific explanations.

Susan Deer, Abta’s director of industry relations, said: “We all absorbed the science behind viruses – there’s no reason why we can’t do the same with sustainability.”

Emily Cromwell, Deloitte’s director of sustainability, said consumers needed “upskilling” to understand climate change, adding those businesses that did this proactively would reap benefits.

“Companies will really need to lay their cards on the table – those that succeed will be those that align themselves behind a net-zero goal versus something that has been used as a marketing campaign."

Addressing delegates directly, she added: “I expect travel businesses to respond with increased transparency with what you are doing and how you measure it. That will result in greater collaboration and alignment across an ecosystem of travel companies.”

However, she warned there was an “intention/action gap” in what consumers wanted and what they would pay for.

Dr Dirk Glaesser, UNWTO director, sustainable development of tourism, told the conference travel firms embarking on carbon reduction needed to quantify their progress more.

He said only 28% of those that replied to a sustainability survey had a vision and a plan, and 46% were taking action without a plan, while 74% said they did not know how to measure emissions.

One sustainability driver for travel brands in future would be access to investment, Cromwell said. “We are currently seeing an increasing expectation among investors where capital will be allocated to businesses that can demonstrate bona fide (credentials). Access to capital will be a big driver moving forward.”

She added there would be a knock-on effect from larger organisations becoming more transparent creating the same expectations for smaller businesses and added sustainability should be seen as “a value creation opportunity”.

“While there are a lot of sticks, there is also a big carrot.”