g-Think | Issue 11 | Responding to Awakening Travelers

Today’s travelers are proving to be more independent in their thinking and acting than travelers were even a decade ago. g-Think’s Travel Survey (February 2006) revealed that 95 percent of those who responded felt that it’s important that the destinations they travel to have a policy to protect the environment.

Travelers are hungry for information, too. The Travel Industry Association of America estimates that 101.3 million Americans are now “online travelers.” They are researching their destinations as never before, and many are making their travel plans based on preference rather than price. Travelers’ worldviews and personal values are becoming important determinants in where they go, where they stay, and what they do. So how are hotels responding?

Hotels Go Green
From Amandresorts, which offers luxurious accommodations in local and often natural settings, to mass-market Marriott, hotels and hotel chains are going green, or at least attempting to. For example, in 2005, Marriott was named by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year for implementing programs that save more than 80 million KWH of electric energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 64,000 tons annually. According to Marriott International, “Today, 90 percent of Marriott hotels have undergone energy efficiency improvements, such as lighting replacements that conserve energy usage by more than 30 percent, electronic thermostats, new brand signs with LED technology, laundry ozone systems, and central plant upgrades and recommissioning. These efforts have helped the company earn the ENERGY STAR rating for 27 of its top-performing hotels, making Marriott the hospitality industry’s leader in energy management.”

The much smaller, but rapidly expanding, San Francisco-based Kimpton chain champions its environmental efforts with Kimpton EarthCare, a company-wide initiative to institute environmentally friendly practices. According to Kimpton, “We will forever remain committed to reducing our ecological footprint as we go about our business. Our EarthCare program raises the bar for us and our industry in setting a standard across all Kimpton hotels and restaurants to adopt environmentally friendly products and practices.”

Numerous other hotels, hotel chains, and destinations are following suit. The development of international benchmarking standards would surely give such efforts a boost (see “The Complex World of Benchmarking” in this issue).

Local Style Enters the Picture
Another trend that’s occurring in response to evolving consumer demands is the integration of hotels into their local environments—cultural, natural, or both—enabling travelers to explore the essence of destinations. As a recent article in USA Today stated: “For high-end hoteliers, the one-size-fits-all way of building hotels is over. . . . There is a trend toward creating hotels to blend in with their environments.” The article goes on to note that “this is a concept the Ritz-Carlton chain calls ‘relevant luxury’ and what many others in the hotel industry refer to as ‘sense of place.’”

For Amanresorts, fostering a sense of lifestyle and place is an essential element of the company’s entire experience. Amanresorts states: “That ‘lifestyle’ is about shared values, a lust for faraway cultures, for the world around that excites, shapes and nourishes. . . . At Amanresorts we have discovered there is an alternate path. That it is possible to build environmentally friendly and aesthetically pleasing resorts. That small is good for business as well as guests. That less is more.”

Not only hotel chains are capitalizing on the trend toward offering more valuable travel experiences. Across the globe, small, independent properties are being built to appeal to travelers who are tired of gated resorts, mass-market tourism, and generic style. Often these properties have a direct connection to the communities where they are located and offer visitors the chance to interact with locals. In return, the locals benefit economically and gain a sense of pride in their culture and heritage.

Properties adopting an eco- or sustainable ethic are also enjoying a wave of popularity as travelers seek value-based experiences in accordance with their personal ethical principles. It’s not going to be long before the big guys get into the act, too.