Booking.com's 2025 Sustainable Travel Research Reveals Growing Awareness of Tourism's Impact on Communities

SYDNEY, May 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Since first conducting research on consumer attitudes about travelling more sustainably in 2016, Booking.com has surveyed nearly 230,000 travellers in 35 markets. Today, Booking.com released the 10th edition of its annual research exploring consumer attitudes and intentions concerning the social and ecological impact of travel:

Booking.com's new research takes a community-centric lens. Asking respondents not just how they travel but also how they experience inbound visitors where they live, this approach sheds light on the benefits and challenges of tourism from their perspective as both travellers and locals.

• For the first time, more than half of Australian travellers (51%) are now conscious of tourism's impact on local communities, as well as the environment.
• In 2016, less than half (40%) of Aussie travellers believed they travelled sustainably. By 2025, almost all travellers (91%) said they want to make more sustainable travel choices.
• While 62% of Australian travellers feel that tourism has a positive impact overall where they live, they also highlight challenges including traffic, littering, overcrowding and a rising cost of living.
• Australians are increasingly committed to supporting the economies of the destinations they visit, with 77% wanting the money they spend to go back to the local community, and 73% wanting to leave places better than when they arrived.

"To ensure that destinations can continue to be enjoyed by both locals and visitors alike, tourism, infrastructure and innovation need to keep pace with travellers' good intent," says Todd Lacey, Regional Manager, Oceania at Booking.com.

"We ultimately want to make it easier for travellers to connect with a more diverse range of local communities across Australia, from far-flung regions to Indigenous tourism operators so we help spread the positive benefits of tourism more broadly."

To download Booking.com's full 2025 research, visit HERE. 

About Booking.com:

Part of Booking Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: BKNG), Booking.com's mission is to make it easier for everyone to experience the world. By investing in the technology that helps take the friction out of travel, Booking.com's marketplace seamlessly connects millions of travelers with memorable experiences every day. For more information, follow @bookingcom on social media or visit globalnews.booking.com.