Lengyel Attila

ONLINE INFORMATION FLOW BETWEEN CERTIFIED SUSTAINABLE BUSINESSES

AND THEIR POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SEARCH
ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO).
Abstract
Today the vast majority of scientists agree that humanity is faced with an enormous
challenge. Collapse of the natural environment is the most immediate danger, but the mid and
long-term sustainability of economic and social systems and processes is also questionable.
Tourism being mainly a set of services based largely on the natural environment is
particularly affected by this problem. Although there is a growing demand for sustainable
destinations, the chaotic situation that is characteristic of certification today makes it difficult
to know for sure what is really sustainable and what is not. Even already certified
destinations often fail to communicate this effectively, mainly because the lack of efficient
SEO techniques. According to the latest surveys the internet has become the major source of
information in travel, consequently if a sustainable business does not have a strong online
presence it is put to a great disadvantage in the ever-growing competition on the travel
market. The present article aims to direct the attention to these problems.
Keywords: sustainability, certification, destination, internet, keywords
1. Introduction
In spite of the fact that the Rio+20 conference ended with no legally binding agreements
concluded between participants, sustainability is still a very big, if not the biggest challenge
mankind has ever had to face during its history. While in the IPPC recommendations a
manageable global temperature rise should not exceed 2 degrees Celsius by 2100, a joint
study published in Nature Geoscience forecasts 3 degrees as the higher end of the increase by
as early as 2050. (Nature Geoscience, 2012)
Tourism, being the largest service industry in the world, could pioneer the efforts towards a
really sustainable future. In order to go forward with sustainability issues it is important to
define in terms of figures and a clear set of criteria what is really meant by sustainable
practice in tourism. Today there are about 200 hundred organizations issuing
green/eco/sustainability certificates and labels around the world. One big task ahead is to
make it easier for tourists to find their way in this certification jungle. Equally important is an
efficient communication and fast information flow between really trustworthy certified
businesses and their potential customers who dominantly use search engines to collect
relevant information. Consequently, techniques that guarantee high ranking in search engine
hit lists are extremely important. This article aims to highlight the significance of SEO
techniques the possible responsibility of tourism policy makers and point out reasons why
tourists fail to find certified businesses.
In a survey including 6000 participants from 8 countries made for the 2011 Luzern Tourism
Forum the significance of sustainability in choosing a travel destination was examined. The
study revealed that for 22% of tourists sustainability is a top priority. (Wehrli at all, 2011). In
another survey (German Travel Analysis) 8000 German tourists were asked about their travel

behaviour. The results show that 19% of tourists aged over 14 would choose CBT
(community based tourism) which is a form of sustainable tourism. An online poll conducted
by tripadvisor.com, the biggest community site for travellers, found that 34% of the American
tourists asked would like to visit a nature-friendly destination in the course of the next year.
From these figures it seems that a 20-30 % segment of the tourism market can be considered
as potential customers for sustainable tourism products. An important question is whether
businesses offering sustainable tourism products can get their message through to their
potential customers. By customers we mean online customers as the article focuses on online
information flow issues between providers and their target market.
Another relevant issue is how the tourist can be sure about the sustainability of those
businesses that declare themselves sustainable. Presently there are about two hundred
certification organizations issuing certificates and authorizing the display of certification
logos. It is hard to find the way in this logo jungle and even if tourists manage to find a
certified business they can not be sure whether the certification advertised on the website is
reliable or not. This uncertainty is even bigger with uncertified green businesses.
The GSTC, founded in part by UNWTO, acts as a global initiative for standardizing
certification and offering accreditation schemes for certification bodies around the world.
Although the process is gaining momentum, it is still in its beginning phase. The base criteria
for destinations is still open for comments and suggestions on the GSTC website.
E-travel, E-tourism The role of the internet
According to a 2011 survey for 85% of business travel and 78% of personal travel
information is obtained from the internet. (thinktravel 2011) It is a 6% increase on the figures
in 2009. The internet has become the major information source at all stages of the travel
decision funnel.
Practically all of the certified tourism businesses have their own websites. About 80% of
customers arrive at the website via search engines especially Google which accounts for more
than 70% of all searches. (Nielsen, Prioritizing web usage, 2006). Search engines use a
complex system of assessment for ranking websites in their hit lists. Out of the criteria the two
most important is content and popularity. They examine how relevant is the content for the
most frequently used search terms used for searches in connection with the theme of the
website globally. In order for the website to be found by potential customers the owner of the
site must have at least basic knowledge of SEO and the online search behaviour of tourists.
2. Material and methods
In the present study the sustainable/green/eco tourism businesses of the UK, Ireland and
Hungary and two certification programmes, the GTBS (Green Tourism Business Scheme) and
the EDEN Project were examined with a focus on the strength and efficiency of their online
presence.
The reason why I examined these three countries is that I wanted to compare Hungary not
having a strong tradition and online presence of sustainability certification in tourism with
two countries where tourism certification has been long established. Also, for the
methodology used the GTBS website proved to be an invaluable source of information.

In the UK and Ireland there are over a thousand businesses and organizations certified by
GTBS. In addition, Ireland has its own sustainability certification program (Greenbox). In
Hungary there is no sustainability certification program for tourism in the strict sense of the
expression. The Green hotel award and the sunflower certification program for rural tourism
businesses only encompass some of the important sustainability criteria.
The EDEN project was launched by the European Commission in 2006 with the aim of
promoting sustainable tourism among member countries by awarding sustainably operated
destinations that serve as examples of best practice. The project runs on a yearly budget. In
Hungary 5 destinations have received the EDEN award so far: Mecsek, Hortobgy, rottk
Naturpark, Tiszat, rsg.
In my research I tried to simulate what a tourist concerned about sustainability is faced with
when he looks for a sustainable destination or accommodation online in one of the 3
examined countries. Web searches in search engines are usually done by using short, mainly
2-3 word search expressions. It is relatively easy to identify the most probable search terms
that such a tourist would probably use, partly from generalising personal experience and also
by doing some research with the Google AdWords Keyword Tool. This application quickly
yields data about the average global searches for any search expression. It helps to exclude
expressions that are not likely to be used when searching for a sustainable/green/eco
destination or accommodation. I examined a set of 54 search terms generated as a
combination of 6 adjectives and 9 nouns compounded with the name of a country of the three
included in this study. These words are as follows:
Adjectives: green, sustainable, eco, nature, organic, bio
Nouns: tourism, destination, travel, holiday, break, vacation, trip, accommodation, hotel
Here is the explanation of the 4 categories that were used in classifying hits on the first page
of the Google hit list for each search expression:
Specific destination/accommodation : website of a destination or accommodation that
displays information about being sustainable/green/eco but has no certification about it.
Certified destination/accommodation: website of a destination or accommodation that
displays information/logo about being a certified sustainable/green/eco service.
Tourism information site: a website that displays links and information about
sustainable/green/eco destinations/accommodations/events.
Tourism information site with info about certified destinations/accommodations: a
website that displays links and information about certified sustainable/green/eco
destinations/accommodations in a designated place on the site.
It was also examined what percentage of businesses certified by GTBS and EDEN display the
logo of these certification bodies on the front page of their websites. On the GTBS website
30% of the businesses were examined using random sampling.
3. Results and discussion
As it can be observed on Figure 1. out of all the countries involved even in Wales only 54% of
the service providers display the GTBS logo on the front page of their websites. Out of the 5

Hungarian destinations certified by EDEN 4 have an own website, 2 makes the site accessible
in English besides Hungarian and only one communicates the EDEN certification on its
website. Even if potential customers find the website they have a less than 50% chance of
seeing the logo that validates sustainability claims communicated by the site.
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%

43%
31%

43
43%
%

43
%

20
%

54%

Fig 1. Display ratio of GTBS and EDEN logos on the front page of websites of
destinations/accommodations which have earned these certificates
Source: own research data
Table 1. shows that a tourist concerned about sustainability using typical search expressions
has a 9% chance of finding the link of a site that has any kind of connection with
sustainability on the first hit page of Google. The probability that he will find information
about a certified business is less than 6% in each category. The fact that a virtually ignorable
1% of tourism information sites have information about certified sustainable/green/eco
destinations/accommodations means they consider certified sustainability as being irrelevant
information. It is all the more problematic if we consider that these tourism information sites
are by far the most probable hits on the first Google page, information about certification
could be communicated through them most effectively.
Table 1. Hit probability percentages for the categories and countries
Resource: own research data
Countries

UK

Ireland

Hungary

Categories
Tourism information site with info
about certified destin./accommod.

1,3%

1,3%

0,9%

Tourism information site

Certified destin./accommod. site

38,7%
4%

28,7%
5,9%

18,6%
0,9%

Destin./Accomod. site

4,3%

2%

2,2%

Total average hit probability

(rounded)

9%

14%
12%
10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
0%
UK

Ireland

Hungary

As it is apparent from Figure 2. Hungary

(5,6% ) is far bellow the UK(12%) and slightly more than half of the value for Ireland
(9,4). The sustainable/green/eco tourism providers (both certified and not certified)
provide quite a slim chance for their potential target market to find them by using the
relevant search terms in Google.
It is also interesting to compare the 3 most popular search terms of the 54 used for
simulating search behaviour of tourists concerned about sustainability with search
Fig 2. - Average hit probability by country
Source: Own research data
terms that have cheap as an adjective with the same noun. The data was obtained from
Google AdWords Keyword Tool and shows global monthly average hits per term.

green hotel
green holiday
green accommodation

450000
165000
135000

cheap hotel
cheap accommodation
cheap holiday

3350000
2740000
2240000

Terms like cheap green hotel or cheap green holiday do not yield any results in Google
AdWords so there do not seem to be a considerable overlap between the group of tourists
searching for a green hotel/holiday/accommodation and another group searching for a
cheap hotel/holiday/accommodation. Even the expression green hotel, which is by far the
most widely used term by environmentally-conscious tourists, is used almost ten times less
frequently than the corresponding cheap hotel and we can also conclude that on the priority
list of tourists price is ten times more important than being green/sustainable/eco.
4. Conclusion
Based on the above findings the situation is far from being satisfactory in spite of the fact that
sustainability seems to be very high on the agenda of both global tourism organizations like
UNWTO, WTTC, or GSTC and national organizations responsible for strategic development
of the tourism sector. The information flow between potential green-minded tourists and
sustainably operating certified (and uncertified) service providers is rather inefficient as the
online target customer has a 9 % chance to reach a website of a service provider that runs any
kind of a green business and a mere 2,4 % probability of finding a certified service provider.
To make the picture even gloomier about half of the organizations which have already
obtained sustainability certification fail to communicate this fact on the front page of their
website. Additional research is needed to find out what the reasons might be. As it is apparent
from the data, owners of websites of green businesses do not pay too much attention to search
engine optimization. Looking at search term popularity the percentage of tourists concerned
about sustainability seems to be around 10 % globally in comparison with figures of 18-30%
from surveys conducted in recent years. However, it has to be noted that this study examined
online customers only. As tourism information websites are the most likely hits on the first
page of Google for the 45 typical green search terms for tourists, lawmakers at national level
could pass legislation to make it obligatory for these websites to display certified sustainable
tourism service providers in an easily visible manner and in a separate block on their
websites. Closer monitoring of already certified businesses by their certification providers is
also of key importance. The flow of information between stakeholders at different levels of
the tourism spectrum is to be improved a lot in the future.
References
(1)BLM Media survey 2007, Environmental Message Fails to Get Through to Holiday
Makers,http://www.sourcewire.com/news/35028/environmental-message-fails-to-get-through
-to-holiday-makers - (2) Caroline Bremner, Sustainable Tourism Moves Slowly in the Right
Direction, 2009, http://blog.euromonitor.com/2009/06/sustainable-tourism-moves-slowly-inthe-right-direction.html - (3) CREST, 2012, Alternative Development Models and Good
Practices for Sustainable Coastal Tourism: A Framework for Decision Makers in Mexico (4)
Destination Development, Inc., Roger Brooks, CEO (2012) (5) Herbert Hamele,
Sustainability in tourism : A guide through the label jungle, 2012, Naturefriends International
Diefenbachgasse 36/9, A-1150 Vienna (6) Hering Krisztina Kalmrn Rimczi Csilla
Lengyel Attila, 2012, Turisztikai informciforrsok s motivcik szerepe az utazsi
dntsekben (The role of motivations and information sources in travel decisions), Sapientia
Erdlyi
Magyar
Tudomnyegyetem,
megjelens
alatt,
p
3

(7)
http://revelstokecc.bc.ca/tourism-services/PDF/TopTrends Handout.pdf - (8) http://sinsof
greenwashing.org/findings/greenwashing-report-2010/Downloaded:2012/7/02
(9)
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/06/04/1003187107.full.pdf+html/
Downloaded:2012/7/02

(10)
http://www.
responsibletravel.org/

resources/documents/reports/Alternative%20Coastal%20Tourism%20in%20Mexico.pdf/
Downloaded:2012/7/02

(11)
http://www.tourismwatch.de/files/labelguide_en_web.pdfJohn Mcmurtry, The cancer stage of capitalism, 1999,
Pluto press/ Downloaded:2012/7/02 (12) Lszl va - Krdi Mrta. (2005): A
trsgmrkzs, mint a vidki turizmus fejlesztsnek mdszere. (Region branding as a means
of rural tourism development) In.: Tavaszi szl Debrecen: 252-254.p.(ISBN 963 218 368 1) p.
2-3 (13) McCann-Erickson / UNEP, Can sustainability sell?, 2002,
http://www.eaca.be/_upload/
documents/ResponsibleAdvertising/Sustainabiblity_
Brochure.pdf - (14) NGM, Turizmusfejlesztsi stratgia, SZAKMAI VITAIRAT,(Tourism
development strategy, draft for professional debate) 2011. p 16 (15) Remarks at High Level
Meeting on "Happiness and Well-Being: Defining a New Economic Paradigm", 2012, April,
http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocus/sgspeeches/search_ full.asp?statID=1493 (16) Roger
Wehrli, Hannes Egli, Martin Lutzenberger, Dieter Pfister, Jrg Schwarz, Jrg Stettler: Is there
Demand for Sustainable Tourism? Study for the World Tourism Forum Lucerne 2011, ISSN:
1662-9019, pp. 50-51 (17) Simon Anholt (2011) http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=baxr9Ie0zqg/ Downloaded:2012/7/02 (18) Stefan Gssling (2011), The future of tourism:
A climate change perspective. Lecture series. University of Queensland (19) Terrachoice,
Grennwahsin report 2010, The Sins of Greenwashing, Home and Family Edition, 2010 (20)
Traveler's Road to Decision 2011 by thinktravel with Google, 2011, Google/IPSOS OTX
Media CT US, July 2011, http://www.thinkwithgoogle .com/insights/library/studies/travelersroad-to-decision-2011/ Downloaded:2012/7/02 -(21) University of Copenhagen Synthesis
Report from climat echange global risks, challenges and decisions, copenhagen 2009, 10-12
March, www.climatecongress.ku.dk, Second edition, Graphic Design: Konform.com, ISBN
978-87-90655-68-6/
Downloaded:2012/7/02
(22)
UNWTO,
2012,
MDGs,
http://www.unwto.org/tourism&mdgsezine/ Downloaded:2012/7/02 - (23) William R. L.
Anderegga,1, James W. Prallb, Jacob Haroldc, and Stephen H. Schneidera (April, 2010),
Institute for the Environment, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 (24) WTTC, 2012,
Mission
statement,
http://wttc.org/our-mission/strategic-priorities/tourism-tomorrow/
Downloaded:2012/7/02 (25) Buhalis, D., & Law, R. (2008). Progress in information
technology and tourism management: 20 years on and 10 years after the InternetThe state
of eTourism research. Tourism Management
Author:
Attila Lengyel
assistant lecturer
Szolnok College
Department of Tourism and Catering
H-5000 Szolnok, Tiszaligeti stny 14.
Tel: +36-56-516-066
E-mail: lengyela@szolf.hu