Published on : Thursday, March 15, 2018
The research reported by Ends Europe this week, conducted for the European Parliament’s committee in terms of transport and tourism and, exposed more than 100 quality and 159 environmental and sustainability labeling schemes on the continent. Nevertheless, market penetration is characteristically underneath 1% and the schemes do not tend to be well endorsed at a national level.
Two surveys were carried out for the research. One with the likes of national tourism associations, tour operators and travel agent associations, hotel and restaurant associations, NGOs and national and regional ministries. The other one gathered the views of organizations passing tourism labels, for both quality and sustainability.
At present, harmonisation of countless such schemes are unnecessary, an EU-wide label could “raise the profile of the EU as a quality and sustainable destination”.
Sustainability does not become a major concern for tourists. However, few evidences have shown that eco-labels has chance to manipulate behaviour while vacationing, when selecting a restaurant or hotel, for example.
The research also discovered that labelling is crucial to consumer confidence and performs like an incentive to perk up the quality and sustainability. Nevertheless, the schemes need to be correctly regulated.
Also, the “umbrella label” has possibility to reduce confusion amongst consumers who “often poorly understand how the label attributes are reflected in service provision”.
Tags: confusion for tourism & hospitality, tourism & hospitality