Tourism doesn’t live in a silo, and travel businesses can’t ignore the greater world beyond their offices. They have to acknowledge and act upon the climate crisis, and they have to design sustainability into their products and services.
Yet, if your company is committed to sustainable practices — whether they are deeply integrated into your operations or this is something you’re working on one step at a time — the next challenge is communicating your sustainability story. This is where many companies get stuck. They might be doing the right things internally, but they don’t actively share that story with the greater world.
These companies are greenhushing, or purposely under-reporting or keeping quiet about their sustainability goals and climate strategies.
This might not seem like a big deal, but it is. Right now, society at large is facing unprecedented global challenges. Tourism can play a role in surfacing solutions — both within the industry context and beyond. This is not the time to play small and keep quiet. It is the time to embrace your sustainability commitments and actions, and transparently share them with the world.
Why Greenhushing in Tourism is a Problem
When it comes to marketing and communicating about sustainability in tourism, the vast majority of what we hear about is greenwashing. Greenwashing can take lots of forms in tourism, including using vague language and buzzwords like “eco” and “green” without any substantiation. It also includes making false or exaggerated claims or promises about sustainability efforts.
To be sure, greenwashing is a legitimate problem in tourism, especially when it comes to particularly environmentally unfriendly sectors like aviation and cruising. People aren’t ignorant to both blatant and subtle greenwashing efforts, and they’re actively getting beneath the surface to suss out legitimate work. Additionally, governments are finally holding companies accountable for false claims; the EU’s greenwashing directives offer clear guidance about what is and is not allowed when it comes to environmental claims made by companies.
With every action comes a reaction, though, and the heavy-handed emphasis of cutting through greenwashing has had unintended consequences. According to the Transparency Index 2024 (published by Connected Impact and Ringer Sciences), greenhushing is a far bigger problem than most people probably realize. This study reviewed more than 600,000 external communications from 200 companies, and only 2% of U.S. companies were found to be over-promoting or greenwashing their ESG (environmental, social, and governance) progress. Conversely, 58% were found to be under-promoting or under-disclosing. In other words, over half of the reviewed companies were greenhushing.
There is far more information available about greenwashing in tourism than about greenhushing in tourism. Nonetheless, there is at least one notable research study on this: In audits of 31 small rural tourism businesses in the UK’s Peak District National Park in 2015, researchers uncovered that these tourism businesses only communicated 30% of all the sustainability actions they practiced. This is not fairly out of line with the Transparency Index 2024’s findings.
So, yes, greenwashing is unacceptable in tourism. However, greenhushing in tourism is also a problem that needs to be addressed. Here’s why:
Travelers want sustainable travel options.
Several recent research studies show more people are becoming conscious consumers and they expect brands to respond. There is pressure on brands to prioritize and set goals related to reducing carbon emissions, addressing diversity and inclusion, and maximizing positive impact in affected communities — and rightly so. The way society has functioned under extractive, capitalistic-focused models of “progress” has been, and continues to be, unsustainable.
This is also true in tourism: According to the 2023 Booking.com sustainability research, more than half of surveyed travelers didn’t believe there were sufficient sustainable travel options. Additionally, 40% of people don’t know how or where to book environmentally friendly or community focused experiences.
We know the knowledge-action gap is a real thing, and a lot of people don’t actually follow through on those things they say matter to them. Nonetheless, more travelers are actively seeking out sustainable travel companies, and they expect the brands they support to align with their values.
When travel companies don’t communicate about their legitimate sustainability and climate action efforts, they have no chance of connecting with conscious consumers seeking out sustainable tourism options.
Sustainability isn’t only about the environment.
Greenwashing and greenhushing tend to only encompass environmental commitments, but this is only one aspect of sustainability. Sustainability also includes actions that positively impact the cultural, social, and economic aspects of a place and the people who live there.
Admittedly, there is a lot of emphasis on the environment, and for good reason. The climate crisis is a global issue that rightly receives global focus. However, tourists have a cultural, social, and economic impact as well, and travel companies and destinations need to be communicating about work being done in these areas too. Nonetheless, many travelers do not associate sustainability with any of these things, in large part because the concept of sustainable travel has so heavily focused on the environment.
Greenhushing results in a loss of opportunity.
Clearly and honestly communicating about sustainability targets and efforts is good business. Just as it attracts travelers aligned with your company’s values and intentions, it also attracts potential staff, partners, and stakeholders who are in alignment and want to be a part of your journey.
Failure to disclose sustainability efforts can deter investment and business opportunities as well as undermine credibility. Having a robust arsenal of people, funding, resources, and support at your company’s disposal makes it even easier to continue on your sustainability journey.
Greenhushing maintains the status quo of hedonistic perspectives and behaviors associated with travel.
It is worth noting greenhushing is an intentional practice. It is a choice to miscommunicate or not disclose climate and sustainability targets and efforts. This specifically matters in tourism: If travel companies acknowledge efforts to mitigate climate impacts and improve sustainability efforts, it means they also acknowledge that tourism has negative consequences and causes environmental, social, cultural, and economic harm.
As noted in the 2015 study on greenhushing in tourism: “Their websites emphasized customer benefits, using explicit, affective, experiential, and active language that legitimizes the customers’ hedonistic use of the landscape, while downplaying complex issues and normalizing sustainability to reduce customer guilt.”
In other words, there’s a belief that if we don’t talk about it, it doesn’t exist. But the truth is, very real, problematic issues do exist in tourism, and greenhushing is an excuse not to address those issues. Travel companies have a responsibility to acknowledge their negative impact, and they also need to communicate any efforts they are making to mitigate that impact.
It is important to signal to other businesses, sectors, and industries how tourism can serve as a catalyst for climate action and sustainability solutions.
Tourism does not exist in isolation. It is one piece in a highly interconnected ecosystem that touches on a wide variety of aspects above and beyond travel itself. This is true for other industries as well — agriculture, transportation, education, health, infrastructure development, etc.
There is a tremendous opportunity for tourism to learn from and collaborate with other industries and vice versa. In theory, we should all be working toward realizing a more sustainable future, whether that vision is guided specifically by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals or not. When travel companies openly share their sustainability journeys, they make information available that can be used both by other travel companies and by businesses beyond tourism.
It is particularly important for large, international, and more resource-enhanced companies to publicly share their goals and progress so that smaller, resource-strapped businesses can take advantage of what those larger companies have learned: What are they doing? Where is the low-hanging fruit? How are they measuring? What tools have helped them along?
This also grants permission for developing brands to embrace transparency within their ecosystems right away without fearing retribution for being imperfect. It is in everyone’s best interest to actively take action to minimize harm and maximize positive impact as quickly and as efficiently as possible. As more companies normalize reporting on progress, this invites others to start their own journeys. That’s not possible if we hide behind greenhushing.
Why Your Travel Company May Be Greenhushing
If your travel company or destination is doing anything to address the climate crisis and sustainability but you haven’t shared those efforts, you may be greenhushing. Understanding what greenhushing is and why it’s a bad thing is the first step to doing something about it.
The next thing you need to do is understand the barriers that stand in your way. Why, specifically, is your travel company greenhushing?
You have something to hide related to the climate and sustainability.
Recall that greenhushing isn’t only about under-reporting on what your company has or has not done, but also about intentionally remaining quiet about sustainability commitments, strategies, and actions.
You may be intentionally side stepping something you know isn’t ethically sound while still waving the sustainability flag. For example, travel companies often fall short on cutting carbon emissions, yet they are unwilling to make operational changes to address the root causes of the issue. This is common in tourism especially when tour operators realize that, to meet climate goals, it’s not enough to fund the development of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs); they actually need to cut or change itineraries in order to reduce reliance on air transportation. Of course, this requires deep work to restructure a business and possibly lose out on profit. But that’s the whole point: Sustainability goals that actually move the needle are often challenging, uncomfortable, and inconvenient.
Similarly, you may be using some sustainability-focused initiatives and actions as a diversion tactic instead of addressing other problematic areas in your business. To be sure, it’s important to celebrate and share wins. But focusing on what you’ve achieved to the detriment of where you’ve missed the mark — or intentionally caused harm — is deceiving.
You lack resources to devote to sustainability.
Travel companies are facing an uphill battle when it comes to sustainability. Many are still bouncing back from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The vast majority of tourism businesses are considered small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which means they likely don’t have extra staff or funding to devote to sustainability issues. If this sounds like your company, you are not alone.
Being transparent about climate and sustainability commitments does not have to be complicated or fancy. It just requires clear, honest sustainability communication. This can be as simple as a section on the About page of your website that states what your goals are and what you are doing to reach them. Don’t forget to update your progress on a regular basis; even once a year is fine.
Alternatively, there are many tourism professionals who can assist with this task on a freelance or contract basis. Some can assist with operational aspects of the business. Others work with clients on communicating sustainability and responsible tourism marketing. Outsourcing this task may help you get the job done relatively easily and inexpensively while you focus on your business operations.
You fear failure.
Cancel culture and public shaming can send brands into silence and submission. That’s a scary place to find yourself and your company. But “failure” to meet sustainability-related goals doesn’t mean you’ve failed as long as you’ve made quantifiable, meaningful progress.
When it comes to creating a more responsible brand, you’re rarely “done.” Instead, there should be a cycle of setting benchmarks, measuring progress, reporting on progress, and continuing to improve. Even those brands that often seem ahead of the curve acknowledge there’s always a way to do better: Patagonia’s refusal to use the word “sustainable” to describe itself because it is “part of the problem” is a great example of this.
It’s performative actions without real progress that will actually harm your brand — not falling short of stated goals but still showing improvement.
You don’t fully understand sustainability.
A word of reassurance: Again, if this resonates with you, you are absolutely not alone. From measuring carbon emissions to working with ethically minded supply chain partners, this work is not straightforward. Even the concept of “sustainability” is complex.
Not fully understanding sustainability can stop some companies in their tracks before they even get started. Or — and this is more likely — some companies may be doing the work but not recognize it as such. Therefore, they do not actively share it.
The good news is there is a lot of accessible information available to travel companies about climate action and what it means to pursue sustainability. Many companies have been overly generous with sharing what they’ve learned along the way, including guides that make it a lot easier for companies following in their footsteps.
You’re afraid of greenwashing.
One of the most urgent and lingering questions across the tourism ecosystem is how to avoid greenwashing. This is a legitimate concern, especially since consumers are wary of it and governments are cracking down on it. But keep in mind that greenwashing means intentionally misleading people about your sustainability efforts or not being clear about what your company or destination is doing. As long as you are clear, transparent, and honest without embellishing the truth or attempting to hide anything, you likely aren’t greenwashing.
One of the most important aspects of a climate or sustainability plan is measurement. You need to measure where your company is at because that makes it easier and more logical to set and reach challenging but meaningful goals. Pursuing climate and sustainability with quantitative measurements — and then reporting on these — also keep greenwashing at bay.
Does this mean you will always hit your targets? No. Does this mean you’ll realize there’s still work to be done? Yes. This is a sustainability journey after all. But it is far better to share your sustainability story and journey honestly than hiding behind buzzwords and falsities.
How the Tourism Industry Can Strike a Balance Between Greenhushing and Greenwashing
The question now becomes how to avoid greenwashing and how to avoid greenhushing. At times, this feels like a very fine line: Share too much and you possibly risk being deceptive while turning people off. Share too little and you may be accused of hiding unethical practices or not doing enough to address today’s urgent global problems.
Luckily, there are strategies you can use to communicate about sustainability with integrity.
Don’t rely on buzzwords and jargon.
One of the tell-tale signs of greenwashing is the use of words like “eco” or “green” without any explanation or validation of what those words mean. Similarly, you might be nervous about sharing your sustainability commitment — and therefore fall victim to greenhushing — because you don’t know what terms like “nature positive” or “net zero” mean.
The good news is, you don’t have to use these sustainability buzzwords and jargon to communicate your sustainability story. In fact, it’s often better if you don’t. Instead of using this kind of language, it’s far more powerful to show what sustainability looks like, use stories to communicate impact, and highlight opportunities where travelers support your efforts.
Build sustainability into your business model.
If sustainability is something tangential to your day-to-day business operations, then it becomes something your company does rather than something your company embodies. The problem many companies have when they haphazardly tack these initiatives on as an afterthought is that they lack intention. There aren’t proper resources allocated to address them, and they are easily pushed to the bottom of the priority list — if they’re remembered at all.
The fastest, most efficient way for the tourism industry at large, and your company or destination specifically, to have a holistic positive impact is to build its model of operation so that sustainability is the default mode of operation. If your business model is built on sound sustainable and regenerative practices, responsible and honest action should naturally follow.
From there, your company’s messaging supports and reflects your climate-forward and sustainability-minded actions, and vice versa.
Measure. Report. Improve. Repeat.
It is impossible to take meaningful steps forward to decrease carbon emissions, reduce waste, and improve the economic wellbeing of communities when you don’t know where you’re starting from. This is why measurement is so important.
But, measurement is not enough. Set goals for improvement based on your findings. Create a plan to move toward those goals. Share what you’re going to do. Take action. Measure again. Report. Improve. Repeat.
When sustainability actions are backed up by numbers and statistics, there’s no arguing about what your company did and did not do. You can not greenwash when the numbers serve as proof. Not only does measurement safeguard against greenwashing, but it often also serves as motivation to continue improving — setting internal standards to higher levels.
Remember: This benefits you and your business.
When tourism brands embark on a more transparent sustainability journey, they respond to consumer demand. But beyond that, publicly stating sustainability goals forces brands to put pressure on themselves to actually do something about those goals — and do so honestly. When these initiatives are penciled into a notebook shoved into a quiet corner of the office, it’s easy to forget about them. In the public domain, though, brands are accountable to consumers and themselves.
This public accountability is actually a good thing: Representatives from many companies have publicly noted that investing time and effort in measuring incentivizes them to improve — and that often comes with an economic benefit. Once there is a clear understanding of where they’re at, they eagerly look for ways to create healthier company cultures and become better stewards of the environment.
When your company knows it has a responsibility to publicly and transparently report on its impact, it’s far more likely to keep its goals front and center, track its progress, and ethically present itself in the public domain to those conscious consumers eager to support transparent brands like yours.
Embrace transparency in sustainability communication.
It’s not necessary for companies to lay bare everything related to their operations. However, with increased scrutiny on how tourism impacts places and people, and how it contributes to the climate crisis, transparency matters.
The tricky part of transparency is that you can’t get caught in the greenhushing trap in order to create a good impression. You can’t only communicate about the easy things — the easy actions, comfortable stories, and achievements. You can’t hide behind the challenges, problems, and ethically questionable actions. You need to be honest about shortcomings. It’s okay to acknowledge missteps. Most people are forgiving — and even understanding — when you pull up short. No company is perfect, and every one of them on the sustainability journey is right there with you.
But if there are devious intentions hiding behind your attempts at transparency, that’s not good. It is clear when you emphasize certain points as a way to deflect attention away from others. If your company refuses to get to the root of the problems that cause it to operate unsustainably, you have work to do. And until you do that work, you will fall victim to greenwashing and greenhushing.
Are you ready to take action?
Start with these resources.
