Travel can be so many things: an escape from everyday life, a journey of self-discovery, a way to challenge yourself and get outside of your comfort zone, or experience other cultures.

It’s also a massive industry. In 2019, travel was a $8.9 trillion US industry. That’s “10.3 per cent of global GDP. 330 million jobs, 1 in 10 jobs around the world,” according to the World Travel and Tourism Council. And it’s a huge economic driver in many communities globally.

International travel is often by air, which is also a massive contributor to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and climate change. Aviation produced 2.4 per cent of the total global CO2 emissions in 2018, according to the ICCT. It may not sound like a lot, but if the industry were a country, aviation would rank number 6 in the world for CO2 emissions standings. So by the 2018 emission standings, that would be: China, the U.S., India, Russia, Japan, and then, aviation as the biggest CO2 emitters. And of that number, passenger operations make up the majority, at 81 percent.

But that doesn’t stop the world from traveling. 2019 was a record-breaking year for air travel, according to a report by Hopper. 2020 was anticipated to be another booming year. Of course, that was before travel came to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

By April 2020, the number of passengers travelling internationally had fallen 98 per cent from the 2019 levels at the same time. GHG were reduced by 2.5 gigatonnes by May 2020, which was most dramatic effect on GHG in the 32-year history of intergovernmental climate policy, according to report published in PLOS One. And air travel was down by 60 per cent overall last year, according to the ICAO.

But here’s the problem: the drop of approximately 4.5 per cent in global GHG emissions due to the COVID-19 pandemic still falls short of what would be needed every year until 2050 to limit global warming to 1.5 C as per the Paris Agreement, according to the same report.

So what happens now? Travelers have been itching to go explore for over a year, and with increased vaccinations, traveling is opening again. The good news is 83 per cent of global travelers think sustainable travel is vital, and 61 per cent say the pandemic has made them want to travel more sustainably in the future, according to Booking.com. But does that mean travelers will reduce air travel?

“We need to start actually getting governments to stop giving out subsidies to airlines or for the fuel that they use, and perhaps even consider taxing them on the environmental damage that they have, so that it creates potentially higher prices for those airlines and maybe fewer people take flights that aren't really necessary,” says Charlie Cotton, Founder of Ecollective Travel.

 
What can consumers do? Travelers should consider less air travel, says Cotton. For someone who usually travels by air two or three times a year, just taking one less flight can have a big impact on your carbon footprint. One less flight could mean your annual carbon footprint is reduced by 20 per cent. Travelers could consider more local travel by train or car.

For someone who’s trying to make more sustainable travel decisions, this also means choosing trips that are more meaningful and impactful over others. Why not do less but more meaningful trips if it’s going to help the planet?
The other problem is consumers don’t know the carbon impacts of the choices they make. Almost everything we do has a carbon footprint, but we don’t exactly know what those impacts are.

“It's a bit like calories on a chocolate bar I suppose. Everyone's keen to eat the chocolate bar, but if they want to make a better choice, put the number there and they can read it and make that better choice if they want to,” says Cotton. Travel companies should be making the data accessible to consumers so they can make better choices.

For now, there’s lot of carbon calculators available that travelers can use before they buy flights. But hopefully with travelers increased interest in sustainability, travel companies will begin to provide not only more sustainable options, but more transparent options so consumers can make better travel choices. 

Sources:

·      World Travel and Tourism Council: Economic Impact Report: https://wttcweb.on.uat.co/Research/Economic-Impact

·      CO2 emissions from commercial aviation, 2018: https://theicct.org/publications/co2-emissions-commercial-aviation-2018

·      2020 Travel Outlook: Hopper's Projections for the New Year: https://media.hopper.com/research/2020-travel-outlook-hoppers-projections-for-the-new-year

·      PLOS One: Global socio-economic losses and environmental gains from the Coronavirus pandemic: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0235654

·      2020 passenger totals drop 60 percent as COVID-19 assault on international mobility continues: https://www.icao.int/Newsroom/Pages/2020-passenger-totals-drop-60-percent-as-COVID19-assault-on-international-mobility-continues.aspx

·      Booking.com The Future ofTravel report: https://globalnews.booking.com/download/1037578/booking.comsustainabletravelreport2021.pdf

·      Charlie Cotton, Founder of Ecollective Travel

·      Ecollective Travel: https://ecollectivetravel.com/

·       Offsetters Carbon Calculator: https://www.offsetters.ca/education/calculators/flight-emissions-calculator