The Travel Manager’s Guide to Influencing Sustainable Traveler Choices

From insight to influence

Knowing the impact of business travel is one thing. Influencing the choices that shape it is another. Travelers make decisions based on cost, time, convenience, policy and personal commitments, often in the space of a few minutes. How can sustainability fit into this decision making process?

This guide helps travel managers make sustainability visible at key decision points, provide clearer guidance and measure what works within the travel program. It also includes a practical 90-day rollout to help put the five steps into action.

Follow these five steps: choose the decision, identify the moment, introduce guidance, measure the result and improve the approach.

1. Choose one decision to influence

Choose one decision where clearer information could help travelers compare suitable options. This might be selecting rail on an eligible route, comparing lower-emissions flights where schedules and fares are workable, choosing an economy cabin where policy allows, or selecting a hotel with relevant sustainability information. Define the target group, eligibility criteria and practical conditions. Then use travel, emissions and spend data to identify the decision worth influencing.

• Define the target traveler group, eligible trips and any exclusions.
• Agree on acceptable trade-offs for cost, journey time, convenience and personal commitments.

Example: Focus on increasing rail bookings on eligible routes under four hours where policy, cost and journey requirements allow.

Measure: Calculate the percentage of eligible bookings that currently reflect the selected behavior, then set a realistic pilot target.

2. Find the moments where decisions can change

Focus on moments where a choice is still open. In BCD Travel’s Sustainability: Traveler Insights survey, limited availability and lack of information were each cited by 34% of travelers as barriers to making more sustainable travel choices, alongside cost, travel time and convenience. Effective guidance should remove friction, not add to it.

• Map the journey from trip planning through booking, approval and post-trip review.
• Identify where travelers have a viable alternative and what prevents them from choosing it.
• Prioritize one or two touchpoints with enough volume to test.

Example: If travelers compare options during search but approvers see only price, support both touchpoints with the same policy and trade-off guidance.

Useful touchpoints: Trip request, search and booking, approval, pre-trip, during the trip and post-trip.

Measure: Track how many eligible decisions occur at each selected touchpoint and the percentage that result in the preferred choice.

3. Put clear guidance into the travel workflow

Guidance is most useful while choices are still open. Although 50% of travel buyers use online booking tool messaging, only 28% of travelers recalled seeing it, according to BCD’s 2026 buyer and traveler surveys.

• Give travelers one clear action, not emissions data without direction.
• Place the message in search, booking or approval, wherever the choice is made.
• Make sure policy, approval guidance and communications reinforce the same expectation.

Example: During booking, show the preferred option, the policy conditions and the accepted cost or journey-time trade-off in one short message.

Match the channel to the moment: Use the planning page for trip consideration, the booking workflow for option comparison, approval notifications for exceptions, and pre- or post-trip messages for reminders and feedback.

Measure: Compare the rate of the desired choice before and after the guidance is introduced.

4. Measure the decisions that matter

Build a baseline before launch, then track actual choices alongside emissions, cost, compliance and traveler experience.

• Use the same eligibility rules before and during the pilot.
• Separate eligible and ineligible trips so the result is meaningful.
• Review outcomes by route, traveler group or booking channel where data allows.

Example: On selected routes where more than one flight meets the agreed schedule and fare criteria, compare how often travelers choose the lower-emissions option before and after guidance is introduced. Review the result alongside total trip cost, policy exceptions and traveler experience.

Measure: Track the selected behavior, estimated emissions, total trip cost, policy exceptions and a simple traveler-experience indicator.

5. Learn, adjust and repeat

Treat the first launch as a defined pilot. Limit it to a specific country, traveler group, route set or booking scenario, and agree the duration and success measures before launch. The aim is to learn what works, for which travelers and under which conditions before expanding the approach.

• Test one variable at a time, such as the message, timing or approval treatment.
• Ask travelers and approvers one or two focused questions about friction.
• Keep, change or stop the intervention based on the results.

Example: If a booking prompt is seen but does not change choices, test its timing or wording before expanding the pilot.

Measure: Look for a sustained change in the chosen behavior without unacceptable effects on cost, compliance or traveler experience.

Example 90-day rollout

The 90-day rollout shows how the five-step guide could be applied in three phases over 90 days. Days 1-30, Steps 1-2: cover choosing the decision and identifying the moment. Days 31-60, Step 3: focus on introducing and testing guidance. Days 61-90, Steps 4-5: covers measuring the result, learning and refining.  Adapt the timing to the decision, available data and internal approval process.

Days 1-30 | Steps 1-2: Choose the decision and identify the moment

• Define one priority behavior, target group and eligible decisions.
• Establish the baseline across behavior, emissions, cost, compliance and experience.
• Align stakeholders on policy, ownership, trade-offs and the decision points to address.

Days 31-60 | Step 3: Introduce and test the guidance

• Choose one or two moments where guidance can influence the decision.
• Build and test the message, policy wording, channel and exception path.
• Set the pilot period, target measures and criteria to refine, stop or scale.

Days 61-90 | Steps 4-5: Measure, learn and refine

• Launch with a clearly defined scope, such as one country, one traveler group, a set of eligible routes or a specific booking scenario.
• Compare results with the baseline and gather focused feedback.
• Decide what to retain, refine or stop before the next test or controlled expansion.