Canadian companies are increasingly offering ecologically friendly travel options. Hotels, cruise lines, airlines and tour groups around the world are cutting back on harmful plastics and reducing carbon emissions. There’s a long way to go to mend this planet of ours, but the results of surveys and a look at the eco-travel landscape reveals some encouraging signs.

TravelPulse Canada chatted with travel agents and Canadian tour companies as Earth Day (Monday April 22) approached. What we found is that travel and tourism-related companies around the globe are jumping on the eco-travel bandwagon. But it’s not entirely clear whether Canadians and other travellers are putting their money where their mouths are when it comes to asking for eco-friendly travel options.

“As an industry leader in sustainable tourism, we’re seeing an encouraging demand for sustainable tourism, whether it be eco-friendly lodges in Sri Lanka or homestays in Vietnam,” said Darshika Jones, regional director, North America, Intrepid Travel. “Travellers want an authentic experience wherever they are, from their hotel to their food. That’s why Intrepid sources locally-owned hotels that focus on eco-friendly solutions, remaining small to service fewer customers but more responsibly.”

A study released by Booking.com last week found that seven out of ten Canadian travellers intend to stay at least once in an eco-friendly or green accommodation this year. This is the fourth consecutive year that Booking.com research has seen this figure trend up, from 62% in 2016 to 65% in 2017, and 68% in 2018.

Additionally, 66% of Canadian travellers say they would be more likely to book an accommodation knowing it was eco-friendly, whether they were looking for a sustainable stay or not.

That could be the key for Canadian agents looking to capitalize on the trend. But there are caveats.

The Booking.com study found that 82% of Canadian travellers say that they are not aware of the existence of eco-labels for vacation accommodations. Almost four-in-ten Canadians said that having an international standard for identifying eco-friendly accommodation would help encourage them to travel more sustainably, while 56% said they’d feel better about staying in an accommodation if they knew it had an eco-label.

Money also is an issue, of course. Forty four per cent of those surveyed by Booking.com said they can’t afford the extra spending required for sustainable travel. More than one-third of Canadians (38%) said their holidays are a special time and that they don’t want to think about sustainability when booking a trip.

Cathy Davis of Zebrano Travel, a Virtuoso member, said eco-travel is “very big with travel advisors and with our clients.”

“In fact, sustainability is a big focus for Virtuoso. Our philosophy is all about having a trip of a lifetime but at the same time caring for the local people, environment and animals in the area.”

Davis said she recently took a trip to Africa and did four safaris, two with Singita and two with Wilderness Safaris. Both camps she visited are solar-powered and have lodges made of local materials. Both camps also focus on zero waste and improving the lives of people in local communities, as well as improving the African wilderness.

“It’s all about putting the land, people and animals first,” Davis said. “Our customers are much more mindful about their impact when they travel and protecting the environment.”

Jones said bookings with Intrepid, which works hard at polishing its eco-travel initiatives, are up 30% in North America.

“As the world’s largest B Corp travel company, sustainable travel is at the heart of everything we do and everything we offer—from the accommodation we use to our modes of transportation. It’s clear that travellers are seeking eco-friendly travel experiences by booking with Intrepid Travel,” she said.

“All our tours are rooted in sustainable tourism. We actively encourage our travellers to have minimum-impact experiences and to tread lightly when visiting a destination. When possible, we include homestays on our trips.”

Intrepid on Good Friday issued a press release saying that the company and its non-profit arm, The Intrepid Foundation, are donating 40% of the profits from each Family tour booking made now through the end of June 2019 to support the Climate Foundation's efforts to regenerate new marine ecosystems and sequester carbon from the atmosphere. Donations made to the project through The Intrepid Foundation will also be matched dollar for dollar.

A carbon neutral company since 2010, this project is Intrepid Travel’s first step towards becoming “climate positive” by 2020, which means that the company is not just offsetting its carbon output, but actually creating an environmental benefit by removing additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Other companies within The Travel Corporation also are doing their part. A company spokesperson said that as part of the TTC commitment to eliminate single use plastics across all its operations by 2022, all Red Carnation properties across the collection, as well as the hotel’s corporate offices, will completely eradicate 15 key single use plastic items from daily operation by 1 May 2019.

“This follows the recent announcement that TTC’s guided travel brands (including Trafalgar, Insight Vacations, Luxury Gold, Costsaver, Contiki, AAT Kings and Inspiring Journeys) will no longer make single-use plastic bottles available on coaches from the beginning of the 2019 operating season.”

It has now been mandated that by 1 May 2019, all 17 Red Carnation properties will have completely eliminated the following items and replaced with reusable or recyclable alternatives.

A spokesperson for Trafalgar said they’ve been working on sustainability in travel for 10 years through their JoinTrafalgar program,

“Trafalgar’s mission falls under three simple pillars; have a positive impact to people, places and wildlife and to care for the planet with the announcement (on plastic bottles) being another way the brand continues to build on their commitments to the wellbeing of the planet.

With a holistic approach to making a difference, the move joins other single-use plastic removal from Trafalgar’s existing operations practices, from using reusable, durable luggage and name tags from recycled materials, guest tote bags made from recycled materials and also the banning of single use plastics within the brands offices around the globe. It is estimated that this latest initiative estimates that this will eliminate over five tons of plastic waste in the next five years.”

Sister brands Insight Vacations and Luxury Gold, along with The TreadRight Foundation, recently launched Global Volunteer Day to celebrate Insight’s 41st anniversary and Earth Month, with team members around the world making a concerted effort to give back to their local communities. Together with Insight and Luxury Gold’s existing partner, One Tree Planted, a leading not-for-profit organization focused on global reforestation whose mission is to create a world full of trees, some regional teams participated in a tree-planting day, while other teams engaged in other Earth Month activities including picking up litter and cleaning up shorelines.

Not every hotel seems to have them, but it’s commonplace now to find recycling bins in hotel rooms. Low-flow showers also are increasingly common, and hotels are increasingly replacing tiny plastic bottles of shampoo with larger ones that stay put and can be easily re-filled.

Air Canada earlier this year said it’s reducing single-use plastics onboard aircraft and in its workplaces as part of the company's ongoing commitment to curtail waste. Starting in Summer 2019, Air Canada will replace plastic with wood stir sticks in drinks served on all flights, a move that will save 35 million plastic stir sticks annually – enough if laid end-to-end to join Halifax and Vancouver.

Air Canada says it has improved its fuel efficiency by 43% since 1990.

Canadian destinations also are giving the environment a helping hand.

“When Vail Resorts took over Whistler Blackcomb, one of their biggest learnings was the environmental and sustainability practices that Whistler Blackcomb had in place,” said Tania Sear from Whistler Tourism. “It inspired Vail Resorts so much that they introduced it to their other resorts and created the Epic Promise – Commitment to Zero program, an ambitious undertaking committing to zero net emissions by 2030, zero waste to the landfill by 2030 and zero net operating impact to forests and habitat.