A new study of 560 UK tourists found that those with stronger sustainability values were almost twice as likely to say they would pay to offset their holiday emissions – yet more than a third were still unwilling to pay the price.
According to the data collated by The University of Portsmouth, that 63.7 % of tourists with stronger sustainability values said they would be willing to pay for carbon offsets, compared with 34.9% of those with more moderate values.
Professor Yuksel Ekinci, University of Portsmouth said: “Our findings show that even people who place a high value on protecting the environment are not automatically willing to pay more to reduce the impact of their holidays. Understanding that gap is important if we want to develop carbon-offset schemes that people are willing to support.”
The researchers identified four areas of sustainability values: respect for nature, social equity and solidarity, tolerance, and shared responsibility.
They used these to identify two groups of tourists with higher and more moderate sustainability values – of which those in the higher-values group expressed greater concern about global warming and were almost twice as likely to say they would pay to offset carbon emissions.
However, while some were prepared to pay extra, others were not, despite expressing strong sustainability concerns.
The researchers suggest that offset providers need to make their schemes credible, transparent and easy to evaluate, clearly explaining what payments fund, how projects are verified and how environmental benefits are calculated.
Copyright © 2026 Energy Live News LtdELN