Small Nudge, Big Impact: New guide shows how sustainable travel can be communicated effectively
How do you encourage travelers to act more sustainably – without bans, sacrifices, or moralizing? The new guide for effective sustainability communication in tourism, developed by Futouris together with Visit Finland and Tourism Ireland, offers an innovative approach. It focuses on the principle of "nudging" – small, targeted stimuli that intuitively encourage people to behave more environmentally friendly.
‘Sustainability shouldn’t be perceived as a burden. Through nudging, we make it easy for travelers to do the right thing – without pressure or moralising undertone.’
Nadine Lehmann, Market Manager Germany, Tourism Ireland
Why nudging?
According to Booking.com’s 2025 Travel & Sustainability Report, sustainability is important to 84 percent of travelers – but positive environmental awareness doesn’t automatically lead to sustainable behavior.
This is precisely where the new guide comes in: Instead of pure information or labeling, it shows how sustainable decisions can be simplified through language, images, default settings, or playful approaches.
„Even small changes can have a big impact and help ensure that more socially and environmentally friendly offers are perceived and booked more frequently. We don’t want to make decisions for travelers—but rather make sustainable choices as accessible, attractive, and natural as possible.“
Jyrki Oksanen, Head of DACH & Benelux, Visit Finland
About the guideline
This new, practical guide provides concrete tips and examples for effective sustainability communication in tourism. Understanding the target audience, clear language, emotional appeal, and the right stimuli are key success factors. The right nudges can make sustainable offerings the new normal – for example, through smart placement of information or playful elements. Recommended nudging methods include:
- Social norms & role models (‘90% of guests use bicycles’)
- Gamification (e.g. digital stamping campaigns for hiking routes)
- Default settings (e.g. sustainable option as standard in the booking tool)
- Emotional framing & plain language instead of technical jargon
- Incentives (e.g. discounts or benefits for sustainable choices)
In addition, the guide offers concrete recommendations for credible communication: understandable terms instead of technical jargon, consistency in text and images, a clear understanding of the objectives and an individual approach instead of one-size-fits-all messages.
Download the guidelineTwo Futouris projects provided the basis for the new guideline
The guideline was developed based on the results of two practical Futouris project:
- In the region Ruka-Kuusamo, a communication concept for sustainable tourism was developed in collaboration with Visit Finland. This nature-rich destination served as a test bed for communication measures to make more sustainable offerings more visible and attractive to guests.
- Together with Tourism Ireland, we investigated how targeted “nudges” – for example, on social media or in newsletters – can motivate German travelers to behave more responsibly. The impact of these nudges was systematically evaluated and will be used in the future to make visits to the “green island” even more sustainable.
