Only 42% consider environmental sustainability of holidays?

[EveSix]

Just came across this survey at the bottom of another thread.
Is this really representative? Or is it that most people are planning rustic camping holidays in the UK so genuinely don't need to worry much about the environmental impact of their holiday?
I'm surprised. If I think about various social contexts I'm part of (colleagues, friendship circle, DCs' school, extended family etc) not many people would announce a foreign holiday involving flights without a little bit of apologetic cringeing.
Or am looking at it the wrong way around, and 42% is perhaps a big improvement on the previous decade?

This.

I think this summaries is well ... Many of us try as much as we can as often as we can to make the best choices we can.

It's often financially out of many peoples reach to do more

So no, absolutely no apologetic cringing for our flights to Italy this summer

I am sorry, but no I don't consider it at all.

I work hard in a stressful job and I love traveling.

Plus celebrities trying to get us to stop are massive hypocrites-even David Attenborough going on about climate change but he travelled the world, and don't get me started on climate change summits that they all flew to in private jets.

I will stop when it becomes unaffordable through price rises or my income dropping in retirement.

No apologetic cringing over here. I'm also going on a cruise this summer, which is much worse than flying.

honestly, climate change is happening, we will (and future generations) will have to live with it. I'll do my bit in terms of recycling etc, but honestly, whilst ever countries use growth as their indicators we are never going to get a handle on it. We would need third world countries to stay as they are and not expect the same advances & living conditions as the west to even stand a chance, it's not going to happen. The world is too fractured with conflicting governments and corruption. So yes my two holidays a year will have an impact, so minuscule compared to the rest that I'm not going to berate myself for it. Climate change will be addressed on a global scale when it becomes intolerable across the world, yes by then we will have tipped the scales way past staying at the same temps, but that's how this will play out.

incidentally, those watching and funding football/F1, those sports have such a significant impact on climate change, flying huge huge amounts of people (and in F1 cars/components) around the world, to really limit climate change we'd need to completely reverse our way of living, entertainment, socialising etc. it's not going to happen.

Ohh we're supposed to apologetically cringe are we? How much carbon is offset per cringe? I'd hate to fall behind..

I definitely would consider the environmental impact but suspect I'm in a minority. I have never heard of people apologising for flying and many of my friends fly several times a year. I would prefer to travel by train (within reason).

But truth is we fly so infrequently (only 4 times since the millennium) and make environmentally responsible decisions in all other areas of life, that I don't allow myself to feel guilty when I do it.

When the elite give up their private jets and yachts..I might consider giving up travelling abroad until then I look forward to my holidays and travelling.

IfThe thought of never travelling and having to stay on UK soil for the rest of my life makes me terrified. I would leave. I'm a skilled professional which is desperately needed here and abroad. I think many like me would leave the UK. The weather is absolutely shite grey for 300 days per year. Increasing taxes then not being allowed to leave for a break!! I've always had wanderlust from a young age , I think we would suffer huge amounts of brain drain.

No, I don't consider the environmental impact. I, as an individual, do not make a jot of difference when looking at the big picture. The entire mindset of governments and countries need to change to make any difference, not me going on a plane once a year.

I suppose it depends on who's in the mix, as it were. But I definitely see more concern for and awareness of the impact of travelling abroad for holidays than this survey indicates.

I don't know many of the 'middle class' would be travellers some are referring to, and I don't think environmental awareness is a class thing? That sounds a bit crass. Most of the people I know can't afford to holiday abroad on a regular basis, but are still concerned about the environmental impact of the one trip they might consider every few years.

In my own small sample group there are a few different categories of people, who still overlap in their "I know this isn't ideal..."-thinking about booking foreign trips for leisure: quite a few like you, Weeping, who are already making lots of environmentally motivated choices in other areas of their lives and who, by all accounts, could probably be said to already be doing 'their bit'.

I work in a school, so colleagues tend to be naturally concerned about the futures of children, hence feel guilty about making decisions that have a negative impact on the environment -many have taken no-flying pledges- but some choose to fly occasionally and usually express ambivalence about it.

There's definitely an element of cognitive dissonance about flying on holiday: the impact is incontrovertible, but simultaneously not noticeable here and now. But it's not just flying; tourism isn't sustainable in many popular locations, and has had a really negative impact on local communities and environment for a long time.

tourism isn't sustainable in many popular locations, and has had a really negative impact on local communities and environment for a long time.
Tourism in the UK also has a negative effect in many popular holiday areas.
Any threads on Cornwall and the Lake District will tell you that.
Tourism anywhere seems to have negative impacts, but it would be pretty depressing if the answer was never to go on holiday.

Well, I do. We take the ferry and drive (not without its environmental drawbacks itself), or, for example, I'm taking the kids Interrailing at Easter.

Looking at the massive demand I've encountered on European trains, this is definitely a growth industry- they can't make the rolling stock fast enough to keep up with the demand for international night sleeper trains, for example. I think people have just realised it's a nicer way to travel.

But I don't think stupidly cheap flights are available in the way that they were a decade ago, which is a good thing. The culture of jetting off to the other side of Europe just for a city break is not sustainable.

But a PP is correct- it's the private jets of the frequent flyers we need to be focusing on the most.

I don't know anyone who even mentions the environment in relation to holidays. Also I'm not curtailing the two flights I take every two years when shit like this happens day after day: www.indy100.com/news/map-private-jets-super-bowl

I’m surprised it’s so high. I don’t understand why you say “only” 42%. Most people won’t think about environmental issues, even if they believe in them. If you’d asked me, I would say about 10% would think about environmental issues.

It's not something that would cross my mind at all

Yes, Fiz, you're right about popular tourist destinations in the UK too. We're campers, so don't see so much of this.
Nice to hear Interrailing is up and coming, Crack. My colleague did it for a month with quite young DC and they all loved it.
Daisy and Train, this is the point I'm making; I'm surprised it is "low", and feel it isn't representative of my experience, socially and in the workplace, where I feel most people are concerned enough to caveat foreign holiday announcements with "I know it isn't great but..." (indicating they have considered environmental sustainability). Clearly, there is a wide range of impressions here. It is just interesting to see how this figure (42%) sits in different people's experience.
There was a thread the other day about someone wondering whether to post foreign holiday photos on social media on account of the cost of living crisis, as some of her friends who were struggling financially may feel affronted. I was thinking that we'd be very unlikely to ever see a thread where someone hesitated to post holiday snaps on social media in case friends and acquaintances felt they were acting irresponsibly with regard to the climate, even though the latter does have a real impact on people's lives (albeit, for now, in more remote and geographically vulnerable parts of the world) and the former is more about not hurting someone's feelings (which is also a kind and considerate thing).

I'm surprised the number is so high.

I've stopped flying now, and have a few friends who are the same, but I wouldn't say that attitude is common among all my friends and acquaintances. (Of course I don't mention this when people tell me about their holidays - I'm just pleased for them.)

There was a recent study that showed in the UK the richest 10% emit more on just their flights that the poorest 30% emit do overall: www.carbonbrief.org/richest-people-in-uk-use-more-energy-flying-than-poorest-do-overall/. It shocked me. It seems so unfair.

@kitcat15 exactly this. Surely eating fish, driving a car, having lots of children is just the same if not worse.

Don't they say that going vegan would make more of an impact than stopping flying?

Have you read the graph correctly? It’s the opposite to what you stated. It says 42% do not consider the environmental impact. That means that up to 58% do consider it.

Nope. No one I know talks about it or cringes when a very occasional flight is booked.

I suspect the number of people that don’t care is higher but the question prompted people to think about wether they should care and so more people decided they should.

I think ‘environmental concerns’ have become a good reason for people to use when they don’t really want to go abroad for some reason or they can’t afford it. No one in my social or work circles would worry about booking a flight, nor would it occur to them to judge others who do.

People that might consider the environmental impact could easily justify it by feeling like they are supporting an industry that has suffered recently and like they are supporting the economy of a destination that probably genuinely needs their tourism.

Personally I think we should be worrying more about the impact of cruises than of flying.

All my friends are vegan, care. We all complain that our efforts are minimal, recycling apparently goes nowhere useful, that none of the big countries even attended cop26.

I didn't think flights were that bad in the green list. Isn't even having a kid worse. One flight to Spain less damage than most other green choices.