04 Mar 2008 11:03:33
UK travellers 'looking to offset carbon emissions'
Around one in ten UK travellers booking their trip with lastminute.com now choose to offset their carbon emissions through the site's carbonwise scheme, it has been suggested.
John Bevan, managing director of the UK branch of lastminute.com, claimed that the scheme is becoming "popular" - particularly as customers become increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of travel.
He added that travel within the UK is also a growing trend and may be due in part to travellers opting for greener methods of transportation as an alternative to flying.
"The UK is becoming increasingly popular for us and our product is reflecting that," Mr Bevan asserted.
"Our customers are increasingly concerned by environmental issues and they offset their flights when booking flights."
Around 2.5 million people log in to lastminute.com every week. On February 27th, the site sold a record number of offsets through the carbonwise scheme, with 114 purchased.
Between November 2006 and February 2008, the site estimated the number of emissions offset equated to the weight of 2,000 elephants.
Some 14 per cent of short haul passengers and four per cent of long-haul passengers choose to offset their carbon emissions when they fly.
