BEIJING, June 18, 2025 — Travel and tourism, one of the world’s most expansive industries, has become an indispensable aspect of contemporary living. Nevertheless, unsustainable travel behaviors, including the acquisition of illicit wildlife products, exert immense pressure on ecosystems and accelerate the rate of biodiversity loss.
Tourism also contributes significantly to climate change, being responsible for a notable percentage in 2023. In environmentally sensitive regions, frequent human activity can lead to habitat destruction, environmental pollution, and disruption of wildlife. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)’s reports, the average size of monitored wildlife populations experienced a 73% decline over just five decades, between 1970 and 2020.
Sustainable tourism, as defined by the UN Environment Program and the UN World Tourism Organization, is “tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities.” In China, a transition toward sustainable travel is emerging as a potent strategy to counteract the risks posed by global climate change and biodiversity depletion.
While the country banned the domestic ivory trade from 2018, Chinese travelers venturing abroad are still exposed to illegal wildlife markets, for example, in Southeast Asia and Africa. User-generated content and local tour guides are key influences shaping tourist choices, occasionally directing them to markets that sell illegal wildlife products. Influencing travel behaviors is increasingly crucial for global conservation efforts.
Stakeholders in China’s tourism sector are working to integrate sustainability into mainstream practices. One initiative, the Sustainable Travel Alliance (STA), launched by WWF China in 2020, has gathered 50 member companies by 2025. These companies are committed to:
- Protecting wildlife and natural habitats, and rejecting illegal wildlife products.
- Conserving resources and minimizing food waste.
- Reducing the impact of plastic waste on biodiversity.
To provide tour operators with resources for promoting sustainable travel, WWF China and its partners have trained over 1,500 frontline staff, while also supporting businesses in initiating their own sustainability programs. A set of Sustainable Travel Guidelines developed by WWF China, tailored for various travel contexts, also provides practical, easy-to-implement recommendations to support responsible tourism practices at every stage of a journey.
On the traveler side, digital outreach plays a vital role. Leveraging behavioral insights into travelers’ decision-making processes, WWF China has designed targeted social marketing campaigns to deliver personalized messages encouraging sustainable travel and discouraging the purchase and transportation of illegal wildlife products, serving as a reminder before their outbound trips. These campaigns utilize data-driven segmentation via social media platforms, reaching the appropriate audience at the right time and collecting digital pledges to raise awareness of supporting sustainable travel.
At physical touchpoints, such as airports, train stations, on boarding passes, and in-flight media, WWF’s public service announcements further reinforce the message to practice sustainable travel and refuse illegal wildlife products.
Regionally, WWF China and its partners have also initiated dialogues across China, Thailand and Viet Nam, emphasizing cross-border cooperation in reducing wildlife trafficking linked to tourism, while exploring innovative applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for wildlife conservation, advancing low-carbon hotel initiatives, and employing Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards to encourage responsible travel behaviors.
Biodiversity underpins the health of our economies and societies, yet it faces significant threats. From elephant ranges in Africa to sea turtle nesting beaches in the Pacific, the actions we take today will determine what travelers may still witness tomorrow.
SOURCE WWF China