B: How to communicate well

These adjectives can be applied to most situations where you communicate. Depending on how you see your business, some may be more appropriate in different situations.

For any communication you make, ask yourself, do the following adjectives apply? If they do, and it embodies the way you define your company (fun, adventurous, relaxing etc), then you are well on your way to designing effective communications.

You’ll find lots of examples of good communication throughout this section and the next. These examples - all of which are direct quotes from various company’s websites - are placed alongside the tips that they support.

However, the connected nature of delivering tourism with a focus on sustainability and regeneration means that most of them relate to many other tips too. And while reading the short snippets here hopefully gives you some ideas for how to communicate, you’ll gain even more inspiration by reading them as part of the full description on the respective websites.

Some of your guests may have chosen to come to you because of your sustainability. Others will not care at all or be worried that if you are spending time and money on sustainability, that’s less time and money spent on delivering a great experience for them. Many will fall somewhere in between. How can you communicate with all of them?

Wherever possible, connect whatever sustainable actions or choices you have made, to visitors having a better experience. Having well insulated rooms reduces your energy costs and means less emissions. But for your guests it means the rooms are snug in the winter, and cool come summertime.

Some businesses give their customers rewards or discounts for arriving by a more sustainable form of transport, choosing the more sustainable option in the restaurant, or choosing not to have their room cleaned or towels changed. Depending on what sort of business you operate, some sort of initiative like this may be a great way of connecting with your guests - just be sure not to make other guests feel guilty for whatever they have chosen to do.

An example from the Wheatland Farm, Devon

Counter the associations that somehow sustainable tourism is going to make a holiday less   relaxing and put unreasonable demands upon the guests. If you think customers might come to you by electric car, get a charger fitted to the building, and make it as easy as possible for visitors to use.

Or make it easy for visitors to come by train by providing clear and helpful guidance on how to book and what stations to use (along with any insider tips you might have on where to get a meal etc). Maybe even offer to pick guests up from the nearest station if they let you know when they will arrive. Often hotels and attractions list the directions from the airport, but not how to get to them by bus or train.

For example, if you remove individual toiletries from bathrooms but let guests know they’re available for free at reception, those who bring their own are likely to use them instead. However, if miniatures are placed next to the sink, they become the most convenient option—and are typically used in large quantities.

Shani et al. analysed guest behaviour regarding use of personal care amenities and concluded that the more accessible the hotel products were, the more likely guests were to use them—regardless of whether they had brought their own (Shani et al., 2021).

An example from The Eden Project, Cornwall

Because your customers will have a range of different views, be careful about framing the way you communicate in ways that can be divisive.

Rather than being resistant or confrontational, embrace scepticism as an opportunity to connect. Having a section on your website that details the impacts of your various initiatives (our solar panels reduce our electricity bill by £1,000 a year) can be useful to back up what you are doing, or to provide evidence if a journalist is writing a story about you.

An example from Holkham Hall and Estate, Norfolk

It is common sense that all communication should be clear and easy to understand. In the context of sustainability messages there are two key things to consider. First, avoid jargon at all times. It’s off putting, risks alienating your customers, and is often poorly understood. 

In addition, it is dry and technical and thus is unlikely to resonate with your customers’expectations from their holiday. Secondly, it is important to avoid vague or ambiguous language when describing your sustainability efforts. Instead of saying “We’re eco-friendly,” specify how your hotel reduces its environmental impact, such as “We reduce waste by recycling, composting, and using energy-efficient appliances.” 

Not only will this be appreciated by your customers, ensuring the honesty and provability of any environmental claims made for products and services has become a legal requirement since the introduction of the UK Advertising Standards Agency’s regulations affecting Green Claims (see Section E for more on this).

An example from The Yan, Grasmere

Tailor your communication to resonate with your audience’s interests, values, and concerns, or you risk alienating them, so they switch off. Highlight the benefits of any sustainable actions or initiatives in terms that are meaningful and relatable to them. Pick the right moment to provide the extra context and details.

You should endeavour for all your communication to embody your brand’s values. If your restaurant promotes its approach to reducing waste, your message will be contradicted if the bathroom contains lots of miniature plastic amenities and/or plastic cups all wrapped in more single use plastic. Ensure consistency in your sustainability messaging across different channels and touchpoints.

An example from Heckfield Place, Hampshire

Regenerative tourism should offer a chance to connect with a better quality of life. It’s vital that we avoid overwhelming our customers with too much information or complex data about sustainability issues. You can provide the details on the relevant sustainability pages on your website, which guests can choose to go to if they are interested. Signpost these with ‘want to know more?’ on menus, bathroom cards, in room materials etc. 

An example from Kudhva, Cornwall

Legislation changes, innovations improve, attitudes shift. It’s important to show that you keep up to date, and that your efforts for sustainability weren’t something you thought about once then ticked off a list never to revisit. Guests will be more excited by a restaurant whose menu has been updated within the last month (or at very least, last season), than one displaying a menu from a year ago (or worst of all, a broken link). 

Likewise, certifications and policies documents should be kept up to date, with the latest version shown on the website. And whenever you update a sustainability page, consider adding a line at the bottom clarifying when it was last updated.

An example from Whatley Manor, The Cotswolds