The travel and tourism industry contributes anywhere from 5 percent to 8 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions and consumers are aware of this impact. Your customers are increasingly prioritizing sustainability in their travel choices.

The industry is adapting to growing consumer demands for sustainability. As eco-friendly trends gain momentum, tourism marketing is evolving to highlight how companies are implementing greener practices.

This guide will show you how adopting sustainable measures can attract eco-conscious travelers, boost your brand’s reputation, and ultimately increase your revenue. We’ll walk you through the essential steps to make your tourism business more sustainable and discuss the most effective marketing strategies to promote your eco-friendly initiatives.

What Is Sustainable Tourism Marketing?

Sustainable tourism marketing involves promoting travel experiences and destinations in ways that prioritize environmental conservation, cultural preservation, and social responsibility. This approach is aligned with current tourism trends that emphasize protecting the environment, preserving local cultures, and uplifting communities. By implementing marketing strategies that highlight green practices, boost local businesses, and emphasize the importance of sustainability, businesses can enhance their tourism marketing efforts.

This style of marketing not only helps reduce the negative effects of tourism but also spreads the benefits, ensuring that travel is a force for good. It aims to attract travelers who care deeply about the impact of their journeys, drawing in a dedicated audience that values responsible travel.

How Marketing Sustainability In Tourism Impacts Businesses

Marketing sustainability in tourism is essential for businesses looking to address consumer concerns about environmental impact and demonstrate their commitment to reducing their carbon footprint. By transparently showcasing your sustainable practices—whether that’s through reducing energy usage, supporting local conservation efforts, or using sustainable materials in your operations—you not only address these concerns but also create a unique selling point.

So how does this affect your company’s bottom line?

How To Make Your Tourism Business More Sustainable

Making your business stand out in the tourism industry and meet consumer demands for sustainable options begins with actually making your tourism business more sustainable.

1. Seek Green Certifications and Awards: Obtain green certifications from recognized environmental organizations to lend credibility to your claims. Display these certifications prominently in your marketing materials and on your website.
2. Showcase Sustainable Practices: Use your platforms to highlight sustainable practices your business has adopted, such as using renewable energy sources, reducing water usage, and employing locals. Share stories and visuals that demonstrate these efforts in action. See how EcoCart’s Impact Page & Counter seamlessly showcases your sustainability efforts in real time.
3. Educate Your Audience: Regularly post content that educates travelers on the importance of sustainable tourism and how they can make eco-friendly choices. This could be through blog posts, newsletters, or social media campaigns.
4. Offer Sustainable Choices: Provide customers with sustainable options, like offsetting emissions produced by the trip, eco-friendly accommodations, travel packages that benefit local communities, or activities that do not harm the environment. Make these options easy to find and attractive.
5. Partner with Like-Minded Businesses: Collaborate with other companies that prioritize sustainability to broaden your impact and reinforce your brand’s commitment to environmental responsibility.
6. Engage Locally: Involve the local community in your tourism offerings. This can include promoting local artisans, food producers, and cultural experiences that support the local economy and reduce environmental impacts.
7. Measure and Report Impact: Keep track of the impact your sustainability initiatives are making and share these results with your audience. Transparency builds trust and can motivate others to choose your business. See how EcoCart’s Sustainability Insights Dashboard lets your business track its progress in real time.

12 Sustainable Tourism Marketing Strategies

Once you have your ducks in a row, it’s time to weave sustainability into your existing marketing strategy. These tourism marketing strategies are a great start:

1. Create A Sustainability Statement

A sustainability statement outlines your plans to becoming a net zero emissions business. Start by clearly defining what sustainability means for your tourism business. This might include reducing carbon emissions, conserving water, minimizing waste, or promoting local biodiversity.

Here are the general steps for creating a sustainability statement with substance:

1. Conduct a sustainability audit to see where your greatest emissions are coming from. This audit should cover all aspects of the business, from energy usage and transportation to food services and waste management. Utilize tools and methodologies that align with international standards to ensure the audit is thorough and credible.
2. Set specific, measurable sustainability goals such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions by a certain percentage within a defined timeframe.
3. Next, develop a sustainability program based on the audit’s findings. Implement targeted sustainability initiatives and discuss your commitment to these practices through in your sustainability statement.

2. Allow Customers To Offset Their Trips During Booking

Weave sustainability into every step of the customer experience by allowing customers to offset emissions produced by their online bookings with EcoCart’s Climate Contribution Widget. This innovative feature seamlessly incorporates into the online checkout process, offering customers the opportunity to offset the carbon emissions associated with their journeys.

When a customer books a travel service or product, the widget calculates the carbon footprint of their trips based on mode of transportation, route per leg of the journey, and each stage of the trip. This calculation is powered by EcoCart’s Product Emissions Calculations, which utilize an extensive database of certified carbon offset projects and up-to-date lifecycle assessment data to ensure accuracy.

This feature serves as a significant differentiator in the competitive tourism market. The transparency provided by real-time calculations helps build trust and customer loyalty.

Learn more about how EcoCart’s Travel & Tourism Solution can make your travel business more sustainable.

3. Incorporate Sustainability In Your Content Marketing

Create engaging content that highlights your sustainability efforts. By creating content that highlights your sustainable practices, you can engage and educate your audience about the importance of eco-friendly travel. For instance, a blog series documenting your transition to sustainable operations, testimonials from customers who have experienced your green initiatives, or a video showcasing your eco-friendly facilities can significantly enhance your brand’s appeal.

EcoCart’s Sustainability Marketing Toolkit can further elevate your efforts by automating many aspects of your sustainable marketing strategy. This toolkit includes features that help you measure and communicate the impact of your eco-friendly practices, such as carbon footprint calculators and real-time reporting.

With EcoCart, you can provide transparent and quantifiable evidence of your sustainability efforts, making your marketing messages more credible and compelling to environmentally conscious travelers.

4. Create Social Media Campaigns Around Sustainable Travel

Social media is one of the most effective marketing channels your tour business can use. You’ll first want to understand where your target audience hangs out on social media. Gen Z, for example, is on TikTok and Snapchat whereas Millennials are on Facebook and Instagram. Launch campaigns that feature your sustainable practices on various social media platforms so that you reach the widest audience.

Here’s how to promote sustainable tourism on social media platforms quickly and easily:

• Use hashtags like #EcoTravel or #SustainableTourism to increase visibility and hop on social media trends quickly so that the platforms are more likely to promote you to new audiences.
• Encourage guests to share their green experiences while on their trips, which provides social proof and amplifies your message across these platforms.
• Create polls on which Climate Contribution Projects your business should support next to increase engagement and also do a bit of audience research.

5. Tap Into Influencer Marketing

Partner with travel influencers who focus on eco-friendly travel. Their endorsement can lend credibility to your sustainability claims and help you reach a broader audience that values sustainability.

Begin by identifying influencers who not only have a significant following but also align with the values of sustainable tourism. These influencers often have engaged audiences who trust their recommendations and are passionate about the environment. You can ask to see their media kit to learn about their engagement rates.

To effectively partner with these influencers, consider creating collaborative content that highlights your company’s sustainability efforts. For instance, invite influencers to experience and showcase eco-friendly activities such as guided eco-tours, conservation projects, or visits to renewable energy facilities. Encourage them to share their genuine experiences and insights, which can lend credibility to your sustainability claims.

Moreover, develop a campaign around hashtags that both resonate with eco-conscious travelers and enhance the visibility of your content. Use specific, memorable hashtags that relate to sustainability in travel, like #EcoTravelWithUs or #SustainableStay. This not only helps in tracking the performance of the campaign but also in creating a community around sustainable tourism.

Finally, ensure that your collaboration with influencers includes actionable tips that their audience can follow with your business, such as offsetting their trip’s carbon footprint, choosing eco-friendly accommodations, or supporting local green businesses. By providing these actionable insights, you create value for the audience, encouraging them to engage more deeply with eco-friendly travel practices.

6. Highlight Green Efforts In Email Marketing

Email marketing remains a powerful tool for engaging with tourists and promoting sustainable tourism. To maximize its impact, focus on crafting regular newsletters that not only inform but also inspire your audience. Start by detailing the specific initiatives your business has undertaken to make a positive environmental impact. For instance, you could showcase your efforts in reducing carbon footprints, partnering with local conservation projects, or using eco-friendly materials and practices.

Also, consider highlighting seasonal promotions that tie into local conservation efforts, which can entice travelers to participate in activities that contribute to the area’s sustainability.

By incorporating vivid images and real stories from tourists and locals alike, your newsletters can vividly demonstrate the positive impacts of these sustainable practices, making your marketing message both engaging and educational.

7. Optimize for Sustainable Keywords

A good portion of consumers do their research through search engines before committing to a purchase. Optimizing your website content for said search engines is an effective way to attract visitors online.

Start by conducting thorough keyword research to identify terms that potential customers are using to search for eco-friendly travel options. Tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs can help you discover popular and niche keywords related to sustainable tourism. For instance, phrases such as “eco-friendly accommodations,” “green travel destinations,” or “sustainable tour packages” might be highly relevant.

Once you’ve identified the right keywords, integrate them strategically into your website. This includes placing them, in order of impact,

1. page titles
2. meta tags
3. excerpts
4. blog post content
5. main page content

This will improve your search engine visibility. However, it’s important to use keywords naturally and avoid overstuffing, as search engines penalize websites that attempt to manipulate search results with excessive keyword usage.

While you’re making all of that optimized content, be sure to create high-quality content that addresses topics of interest to eco-conscious travelers. For example, blog posts about the benefits of sustainable travel, guides on minimizing one’s carbon footprint while traveling, or highlights of your eco-friendly practices can engage readers and boost your site’s relevance and authority. By optimizing your website for sustainable keywords, you not only improve your visibility on search engines but also attract a more targeted audience, which is likely to convert into bookings or inquiries.

Want to learn more about SEO? Read through these basic SEO guidelines to start implementing on your website.

8. Offer Immersive Experiences

Offer virtual reality tours of the Impact Projects that your business contributes to so that your customers can see how their purchase will impact the communities and environments directly. This virtual engagement not only enhances transparency but also deepens customer loyalty by making the impact tangible. Potential features could include interactive elements where viewers can speak to community members or participate in decision-making processes virtually.

Integrating real-time data, such as progress metrics or environmental benefits, could enrich the experience. By allowing customers to virtually visit project sites, you provide a compelling narrative of positive change, encouraging continued support and involvement.

9. Launch A Green Loyalty Program

Loyalty programs, by themselves, are impressive powerhouses that boost revenue and customer retention. Develop a green loyalty program that rewards customers for making sustainable choices, such as choosing a low environmental impact travel option or to offset emissions produced by their travel option. Rewarding customers for opting into sustainable actions is a way to further solidify customer loyalty and retention with a very specific and dedicated target audience.

10. Embed Interactive Web Elements

Interactive web elements not only engage visitors but also empower them with information that can influence their decisions and behaviors. For tourism marketers, incorporating tools like carbon footprint calculators on their websites can be particularly effective. These calculators allow travelers to estimate the environmental impact of their travel choices, from flights to hotel stays. By providing this data, you help visitors make more informed, eco-friendly decisions. Providing options for carbon offsetting directly on the booking pages can further integrate sustainability with the entire customer experience.

For example, integrating a tool like EcoCart’s Sustainability Insights Dashboard can add a significant value to your website. By embedding this feature, businesses can monitor their carbon emissions and offset impacts in real-time.

11. Highlight User-Generated Content

Encourage your customers to post their own content showcasing their sustainable travel experiences at your locations. User-generated content such as photos, videos, and testimonials provide authentic insights into your sustainable practices and enhance credibility, making your marketing efforts more relatable and effective.

Start by creating a catchy, sustainability-themed hashtag. Encourage your guests to tag their eco-friendly adventures using this hashtag, creating a vibrant, searchable content stream that acts as a living testimonial to your brand’s commitment to the environment. To add an element of excitement, run a photo or video contest with prizes that promote further sustainable activities, like discounts on future eco-friendly tours or free eco-friendly travel gear.

12. Showcase Positive Online Reviews

Actively promote and manage online reviews focusing on your sustainability efforts. Positive reviews can significantly influence potential customers by highlighting your commitment to sustainability.

To effectively showcase these reviews, start by encouraging your customers to share their experiences, particularly those that emphasize your commitment to sustainability. You can facilitate this by sending follow-up emails post-visit, or by providing incentives like discounts on future bookings for those who leave a review.

Once you have gathered reviews, actively promote the best testimonials across your marketing channels. Feature them prominently on your website, share them in your newsletters, and post them on social media platforms. Ensure that these reviews are visible to all website visitors by creating a dedicated section or a dynamic feed that updates with new reviews.

Engaging with reviews is as important as showcasing them. Make it a practice to respond to all reviews, both positive and negative. This interaction demonstrates your brand’s dedication to customer satisfaction and continual improvement in sustainable practices. When addressing negative reviews, offer solutions and show your willingness to make things right. This proactive approach not only rectifies issues but also publicizes your commitment to responsible tourism.

Sustainable Travel & Tourism Marketing Options By Business Size 

No matter the size of your tourism business, EcoCart offers tailored solutions to make sustainable marketing straightforward and effective. Our Travel and Tourism solution calculates the emissions per trip, based on the route, transportation modes, and each leg of the trip.

Up to $50K in total monthly revenue 

For businesses with up to $50K in total monthly revenue, EcoCart provides a do-it-yourself model with software specifically designed for carbon accounting and offsetting. This allows small businesses to manage their carbon footprint independently while leveraging technology and digital marketing to promote their green initiatives effectively.

Our out-of-the-box Climate Contribution Checkout Widget automatically calculates emissions per product and the amount to contribute to offsets.

$50K-$100K in total monthly revenue 

Businesses generating between $50K and $100K in total monthly revenue can benefit from EcoCart’s integration capabilities, seamlessly linking with their existing tech stack for a holistic approach to sustainable marketing. We currently integrate with:

• Shopify – Elevate your Shopify store’s sustainability effortlessly with EcoCart. Our ready-to-use Shopify integration allows merchants to seamlessly integrate sustainable ecommerce solutions without requiring additional development resources.
• Tapcart – Integrate EcoCart with Tapcart in your native mobile app to offer a climate contribution option at checkout. Add the EcoCart checkout widget to your app cart and include Product Detail Page (PDP) injections for enhanced transparency. This strategy enhances the shopping experience and fosters deeper loyalty among your dedicated customers.
• Recharge – Enable shoppers to offset the carbon emissions of their orders with the EcoCart and ReCharge integration. This allows customers to choose the frequency of their product deliveries and opt to either offset emissions themselves or have them offset on their behalf.
• Yotpo – Use Yotpo in combination with EcoCart to enhance your brand’s sustainability. By integrating Yotpo Loyalty & Referrals and SMSBump, you can incentivize, reward, and thank customers for reducing their carbon footprint effectively.

Over $100k in total monthly revenue 

For enterprises earning over $100K in monthly revenue, partnering with EcoCart can help develop a comprehensive sustainability program. EcoCart’s expertise in building and implementing customized sustainability solutions can help larger businesses amplify their impact, improve customer loyalty, and boost their market position through advanced sustainable practices and reporting.

Use our API to weave your calculations and offsets right into your native marketing strategy.

Make Your Tourism Business More Sustainable With EcoCart

Elevate your tourism business’s sustainability with EcoCart’s comprehensive tools. Whether you’re starting or enhancing your eco-friendly initiatives, EcoCart provides customized solutions, including the Impact Page & Counter and the Sustainability Insights Dashboard. These tools help you monitor and offset your environmental impact while transparently showcasing your efforts to customers. This open communication builds trust and loyalty among eco-conscious consumers. Connect with EcoCart today to advance your sustainability practices and stand out in the tourism industry. Make a move towards a greener future by integrating EcoCart into your business strategy.