The End of Green Travel

The concern about Green Travel and the overuse of the term "Green" is now going to be what sets apart the - for lack of a better word - "light green" hotels, developers and airlines from those that really know how to sustainably exist in an eco-conscious world. There are a multitude of developers out there who have outreached for LEED certification in their building and planning stages and can highlight their processes and amenities in true Green terms. New LEED certified Green communities, like The Greenbrier Sporting Club???s Green Homes at The Greenbrier, http://www.greenbriergreenhomes.com, on the grounds of the historic Greenbrier resort are Green within the naturaly existing green Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia. Green Homes is truthfully and efficiently touting a deliberate reuse of materials in their post and beam frame home community, including the use of locally indigenous stones, timber from fallen trees, Energy Star rated appliances and even delineation of construction limits to minimize disturbing the existing flora and fauna. Green may be overused, but its interesting to seek out the innovators and see who really has the green building "fad" in environmental control.

85% profess to be environmentally conscious but refuse to pay more for it.

That number alone dispels the notion that the green movement is really gaining ground in anything but being politically fashionable.

That 85% of environmentally conscious people think it sounds nice to save the planet, but if they really believed that they were harming the planet with their V8 powered cars, or their choice of hotel, they would make other choices.

But they don't. Simple as that. If the thing they happen to already be using becomes green at no cost to them, great, but if not, then they'll keep choosing what is economically best for them, and not what is supposedly "green."

I believe the global warming topic has peaked, and we'll actually see less and less of this kind of propaganda, but it will fade slowly. Religious faith is a mysterious thing, even in the light of real truth.

Really good article, I even talked about it on my blog (http://ecotourismleavingfootprints.blogspot.com/). However i do not fully agree with it when it is written that it is the end of green travel. I would say this is the beginning of the end of some forms of greenwashing, but i do not think this is the end of ecotourism. Ecotourism is a the most stringent form of green travel and goes (normally) far beyond what it is described in the article.
I would also add, like many people did in the comments, that there is a lot to do about environmental awareness both in Europe and Northern America.

While I agree we shouldn't reward companies like UA for simply cleaning up after themselves, let's not assume the general public is as far along as you. Less than four percent of Americans know that coal fired power plants cause even more air pollution than automobiles. A 2008 EcoPulse survey found fully half the respondents couldn???t name one feature of a green home. While 83 percent of UK consumers worry about climate change, 26 percent could not name one company that makes a green product. Most people from the Northern Hemisphere know Boston is famous for its clam chowder and Irish stew can be ordered in any good Irish pub around the world, but only one in 40 know the most common soup in the Pacific is plastic soup. Floating in the North Pacific is a sea of plastic soup almost one and a half times the size of the continental US. Often called the Pacific Garbage Patch, this five million square mile area is a graveyard for marine life.

I operate green vacation rental homes in Florida and Arizona, very few of our guests guests care if we're green or not. After they stay with us, that usually changes, but we have a long way to go putting our money where our mouth is in market research studies.

A greenlightened travel industry doesn't mean the end of green travel - it just means the beginning of 'super-green travel., as there will always be eco-pioneers taking it one step further. For every Mariott of Hilton that launches a carbon-offset schcme or uses low-energy bulbs, there will be an independent hotel or hostel that builds a green roof or begins a worm farm. The next big green travel trend is also likely to be urban green travel. There may be plenty of eco-lodges in remote resorts or parks, but there's still little choice in most cities.when it comes to finding green accommodation - but over the next couple of years that will change, as more travelers will demand their hotels to offer in-room recycling, or bicycle hire.etc. Basically travelers will expect to be able to continue the green habits they have formed at home, while on the road. This is also the reason why we publish a series of green city travel guides at jamblemag.com - to provide the information travelers need to be able to go green while on city breaks.