A new report, entitled ‘Top Countries for Sustainable Tourism’, states that just over two thirds of global consumers want to have a positive impact on the environment through their daily actions in 2021.
Released by global market research company Euromonitor International at ITB Berlin on 12 March, the report states that Sweden is leading by example in its engagement and progress towards sustainable travel. The Nordic country is followed by Finland (2), Austria (3), Estonia (4) and Norway (5).
“Sweden is a pioneer in lifecycle assessment research which is critical to understand the full impact of consumer behaviour and consumption patterns,” says Caroline Bremner, head of travel at Euromonitor International. The Scandinavian country activley engages with the Sustainable Development Goals and aims for net zero emissions by 2045.
The Sustainable Travel Index has analysed 99 country destinations taking into account environmental, social and economic sustainability, in addition to the demand for sustainable tourism.
Coompleting the top 10 in order are Slovakia, Iceland, Latvia, France and Slovenia. The rest of the top 20 is dominated by other European countries – Switzerland (11), Lithuania (12), Croatia (13), Czech Republic (14), Ireland (15), Germany (16), Belgium (17), Denmark (18), Netherlands (19) and Portugal (20).
The highest non-european nations are Bolivia (22), New Zealand (23) and Canada (24). The USA ranks 35th and the UK 40th.
“There is globally a clear change in mindset and resistance in returning to a volume-driven travel and tourism model,” says Bremner. “Instead, stakeholders are rallying together to ‘build back better’ through value creation from sustainable tourism. As momentum grows in the run up to COP26, consumers, travel brands, destination marketing organisations and governments continue to align to avert the climate emergency.”
You can download Top Countries for Sustainable Tourism here to access the full rankings. Image is of Zero Island, Sweden.
