VIDEO. What is the impact of advertising and influencers on our travel imagination?

The plane: a means of transport still at the center of tourism in 2023

Between an advertisement and an influencer’s post, there is sometimes only one step.

In his last reportthe NGO crosses advertising displays from the airline sector on one side and Instagram publications from travel influencers on the other for a stunning result: the two types of publications are very similar and convey the same message, that a “real” trip must necessarily be made by plane.

A message that goes against the current climate emergency since the aviation sector (as a whole, editor’s note) is said to be responsible for 6% of global CO2 emissions each year.

Although in one of its latest reports, the IPCC does not recommend a total cessation of aviation activity, the group of experts nevertheless affirms that Transportation by air as we know it today is incompatible with the Paris Agreement.

The weight of influencers in our travel imaginations

In France, 1 in 3 people follow at least one influencer on social networks and this figure even rises to 2 in 3 people aged 18-25.

Content creators therefore play a much more important role than we think: through what they highlight in their posts, they will influence our conception of what is “normal” and ” desirable”. For example, if a popular influencer goes to Mykonos every summer and shares beautiful vacation photos, there is a good chance that this will make a large number of their followers want to go there.

The report specifies, however, that some are already advocating more sustainable tourism, that is to say with longer stays, more local and carried out with more eco-friendly modes of transport. But others continue to entertain the idea that air hypermobility, meaning often taking a plane to the other side of the planet, sometimes over very short periods, can coincide with current environmental concerns.

What solutions can we use to rethink our travel imagination?

What solutions can we use to rethink our travel imagination? In addition to the recommendations made to influencers to alert them to their ecological responsibility and the role they have to play in the fight against global warming (for example, by refusing partnerships with airlines or favoring travel roaming), Greenpeace also suggests that the government put in place concrete measures to drastically reduce air traffic and encourage the emergence of new travel ideas compatible with the climate emergency.

For example :

• An “Evin climate law” which would prohibit all advertising and sponsored partnerships for activities that emit the most greenhouse gases, in particular flying.
  
• The end of the tax advantages enjoyed by the airline sector (exemption from tax on kerosene and VAT on international plane tickets, etc.) and the transfer of these resources to the rail sector. As a reminder, the price of a train ticket in France is today 2.6 times more expensive than a plane ticket.
• An “Interrail Pass” offered to all young people of a certain age group in order to democratize train travel and encourage intercultural exchanges.

NOWU it’s the positive media to get informed and take action for the planet! Its mission: to enable young Europeans to become actors in the face of environmental challenges through guilt-free and solution-oriented content.