The Business Case for Sustainability – Alex Brylske

Why It’s Good Business To Care About Sustainability

AS MARINE TOURISM PROFESSIONALS, we work in an industry where the health of our product can literally bleach and die before our eyes. And that reality should completely change how we think about “sustainability.” It’s no longer a charitable extra to support when there’s time and money. For any serious marine tourism business today – dive shops, liveaboards, resorts, eco-tour operators – sustainability has become a core business strategy and a primary driver of profitability, not a side project

This isn’t a philosophical stance. It’s a response to hard market data and to what I see every day underwater and in coastal communities around the world. The evidence is overwhelming, and it all points in the same direction: operators who treat People and Planet as strategically as Profit will still be here in 10–20 years. The others won’t.

As evidence, one need look no further than how our customers have already been transformed. Across the global economy, sustainability has shifted from a niche concern to a mainstream expectation. And don’t just take my word for it. IBM’s joint study with the National Retail Federation, covering nearly 19,000 consumers in 28 countries, found that purpose-driven shoppers are already rewarding brands that align with their values. About 79% of consumers say authenticity and transparency are essential, and roughly 70% of “purpose-driven” shoppers are willing to pay an average premium of 35% for sustainable, traceable products and brands.

Tourism-specific research says the same thing. The 2023 Booking.com Sustainable Travel Report, which surveyed more than 30,000 travelers in 32 countries, found that:

• 71% plan to put more effort into sustainable travel.
• 50% say climate change is influencing their travel choices.
• 41% explicitly want to reduce their environmental impact, and 33% want more locally relevant, community-benefiting experiences.

Expedia’s Sustainable Travel Landscape study reached similar conclusions: about 90% of respondents say they look for sustainable options, and the majority are prepared to change their transport or lodging choices to reduce their footprint.

Adventure travelers – who should be the natural core of our dive and marine tourism market – tend to stay longer, spend more, and show higher willingness to support conservation and local communities. That pattern is documented in the Adventure Travel Trade Association and IFC report, Shaping the Future of Adventure and Cultural Travel.

Even more striking, diver-specific data now confirms that our own customers are ahead of many operators. The Reef World Foundation’s global Green Fins diver survey (Sustainability in a Recovering Travel World, 2,400+ divers) found that:

• 64% actively look for sustainable alternatives.
• 60% say sustainability is a main consideration in booking.
• 70% are willing to pay more for a sustainable option.
• 96% think dive operators should be doing more to conserve reefs.
• Yet 85% say it’s hard to tell if an operator is truly sustainable.

So, the demand is real. The willingness to pay is real. The frustration is real. The opportunity is whether we respond clearly and credibly.

Sustainability is not a Cost, it’s an Essential

The broader business world has adopted the “triple bottom line”: People, Planet, Profit. Tourism standards developed by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council explicitly embed this model in their criteria for businesses and destinations. In our sector, that framework is not abstract theory; it is a precise description of our operating environment.

For a marine tourism operation, the causal links are brutally direct:

• Degraded ecosystems = degraded products. Coral bleaching, decreasing fish populations, algal overgrowth, mangrove loss, and sediment-choked seagrass: these are not just conservation issues. They are product failures. No amount of marketing will convince guests to return to dead or damaged sites. The World Economic Forum has shown that a large share of global GDP depends on nature and that ecosystem decline is a material business risk for tourism.
• Alienated communities carry higher political and reputational risk. If local people view tourism as extraction – jobs for a few, a nuisance or exclusion for many – you invite conflict over access, rising regulatory pressure, or even community-driven shutdowns. That risk is well recognized in “nature-positive” tourism frameworks. Just look at the “anti-tourist” demonstrations in Barcelona last summer.
• Overcrowding leads to lower guest satisfaction and price pressure. Treating the business as a simple “more heads in beds” or “more divers per boat” equation quickly hits carrying capacity limits. Once sites are crowded, staff are overstretched, and infrastructure is maxed out, the guest experience suffers, reviews drop, and you are forced to discount to fill boats and rooms. (An excellent video of this problem of “overtourism” is contained on the Resource List linked to the QR code.)

From this perspective, sustainability is not a philanthropic add-on. It’s the operating system that keeps your product desirable, your host community supportive, and your risk profile manageable.

Clarifying Our “Why”

Marketing strategist Simon Sinek famously argues that people “don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” Applied to marine tourism, our approach is straightforward: we operate boats, guide dives and snorkel trips, offer courses, and host guests. Our why is where sustainability lives.

Adventure travelers and younger guests – Millennials, Gen Z, and the emerging Gen Alpha – are exceptionally values-driven. They want to see that we:

• Stand for something beyond profit.
• Demonstrate consistent environmental and social values.
• Involve them in learning and meaningful contribution, not just consumption.

A clear purpose statement can align everything from staff training to pricing and product design. For example, a concise “why” for a dive resort or marine tour operator might be: “We exist to create life-changing ocean experiences that actively protect marine ecosystems and strengthen our local community.” Once you frame your business that way, sustainability stops being a “department” or a marketing angle; it becomes the organizing principle for operations and guest experience.

A Practical Roadmap

What I’ve found to be the most helpful advice for those looking for direction comes from the Reef-World Foundation and Blue Ocean Network. They emphasize that operators don’t need a huge budget to get started, but they do need structure and progression, as indicated below:

STEP 1: Awareness and commitment (top down)

Leadership must explicitly place sustainability at the center of the business. That means:

• Writing down your purpose and sustainability goals.
• Communicating them clearly to staff, partners, and guests.
• Treating them as non-negotiable, like safety.

STEP 2: Low-hanging fruit – visible quick wins

These are actions with immediate impact and strong signaling power:

• Eliminating or drastically reducing single use plastics.
• Providing refillable water systems and highlighting reef safe sunscreen.
• Building concise environmental briefings into every dive, snorkel, or excursion.
• Inviting guests to bring back marine debris and celebrating that behavior.

STEP 3: Deeper integration and investment

Here, sustainability becomes embedded in how you buy, build, and run:

• Selecting suppliers and partners based on environmental and social criteria.
• Improving energy, fuel, and water efficiency (which usually cuts costs).
• Supporting local reef, seagrass, or mangrove restoration projects.
• Aligning your practices with ISO and UNEP-backed standards like Green Fins, which provides globally recognized guidelines for environmentally responsible diving and snorkeling operations.

STEP 4: Partnerships and Reputation

As your practices mature, collaboration amplifies your impact and your credibility:

• Working closely with NGOs, MPA managers, and community groups.
• Offering citizen science or regenerative activities (e.g., coral monitoring, debris surveys, community projects).
• Hiring and developing staff who genuinely share your environmental and social values.

STEP 5: Leadership and Clear Differentiation

At this stage, your sustainability performance becomes a competitive advantage:

• Publishing your commitments, policies, and progress on your website.
• Using social media and guest communications to show what you do, not just tell.
• Pursuing credible certifications and recognition (e.g., Green Fins membership, alignment with GSTC criteria, or analogous local/regional schemes).

By the time an operation reaches steps 4–5, several patterns tend to emerge, and they are consistent with both OEI’s experience and broader sector evidence:

• The guest mix shifts toward visitors who are willing to pay more for meaningful, low impact experiences.
• Reviews improve, and word of mouth plus social media start doing a larger share of your marketing.
• Government agencies and NGOs are more likely to consult you when designing regulations or projects, rather than surprising you with rules written without operator input.

We should also consider why all this matters beyond the business realm. Even though I’m writing primarily for operators, it helps to understand why government regulators, tourism authorities, and NGOs increasingly insist on sustainability and, in many cases, regeneration – leaving ecosystems better, not just less damaged. (A whole article on “regenerative tourism” is linked on the afore-mentioned Resource List.)

According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, marine and coastal tourism is one of the fastest-growing segments of global tourism and a key part of the emerging “blue economy.” Adventure tourists and divers – our guests – spend more per day and stay longer than mass tourists, and they are more willing to fund conservation and community projects.

For destination managers and NGOs, helping operators adopt best practices is therefore an economic strategy as much as an environmental one. It preserves reef health, community stability, and tax revenues, and it avoids the boom-and-bust cycle of over-tourism and decline. Furthermore, these go beyond expectations, as ISO standards now exist for how the dive industry should operate sustainably.

Doing Well by Doing Good

Stepping away from all the jargon, the business case for sustainability in marine tourism boils down to three statements, all supported by the sources I’ve mentioned.

1. Our product is a healthy, inspiring ocean and coastal environment.

2. Our customers increasingly demand sustainability, authenticity, and positive impact.

3. Our long term profitability depends on aligning our operations with those realities.

Sustainability, in this sense, is not a marketing label. It is the strategic foundation of a resilient marine tourism business. When we place People and Planet on equal footing with Profit, we are not sacrificing competitiveness; we are securing it.

If you operate in this space – whether you’re running a single dive operation or managing an entire destination – the decision is no longer whether to engage with sustainability, but how quickly and how credibly you do it. The data tell us that divers and travelers are ready. The reefs and coastal communities need it. And the businesses that act decisively stand to benefit the most.

References:

IBM – Meet the 2020 Consumers Driving Change
Core evidence that nearly 8 in 10 consumers say sustainability is important, and that those who rate it “very/extremely important” will pay ~35% more for sustainable brands.
Meet the 2020 consumers driving change – IBM Institute for Business Value (PDF download)

IBM / NRF – Purpose and Provenance Drive Bigger Profits for Consumer Goods (Press Release)
Summarizes the same research, emphasizing that purpose‑driven shoppers pay a 35% premium and are willing to change habits to reduce environmental impact.
IBM Study: Purpose and Provenance Drive Bigger Profits for Consumer Goods in 2020

Booking.com – Sustainable Travel Report 2023
Key source for tourism‑specific statistics: proportion of travelers intending to travel more sustainably, wanting to reduce their impact, support local communities, and leave destinations better than they found them.
Booking.com Sustainable Travel Report 2023

Expedia Group – Sustainable Travel Study / “Sustainable Travel Landscape”
Supports claims that around 90% of travelers look for sustainable options and many change transport/lodging choices to be more eco‑friendly.
Expedia Group – Sustainable Travel Study (Sustainable Travel Landscape)

Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) & IFC/World Bank – Shaping the Future of Adventure and Cultural Travel
Provides adventure‑tourism market size, spending levels, and evidence that adventure travelers spend more, stay longer, and are more conservation‑oriented.
Shaping the Future of Adventure and Cultural Travel (ATTA & IFC)

The Reef‑World Foundation – Sustainability in a Recovering Travel World (Green Fins Diver Survey)
Direct evidence on divers’ attitudes: proportions who seek sustainable alternatives, consider sustainability in bookings, are willing to pay more, and struggle to identify truly sustainable operators.
Sustainability in a Recovering Travel World – Global Scoping Survey of Divers

Green Fins – Global Environmental Standards and Membership Programme
Shows that there is an internationally recognized, UN‑backed standard for sustainable diving and snorkeling operations, supporting the idea that sustainability is becoming expected “best practice.”
Green Fins – Sustainable Diving and Snorkeling

World Economic Forum – Nature Risk Rising: Why the Crisis Engulfing Nature Matters for Business and the Economy
Underpins the argument that a large share of global GDP (including tourism) depends on nature, and that degrading ecosystems is a material business risk.
Nature Risk Rising – World Economic Forum

WTTC – Nature Positive Travel & Tourism
Supports claims that the travel & tourism sector is embracing “nature positive” and regenerative approaches, while still growing economically.
World Travel & Tourism Council – Nature Positive Travel & Tourism

UN Environment Programme / Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC)
Provides widely recognized criteria and frameworks for sustainable tourism, supporting the triple bottom line (People–Planet–Profit) as an accepted model for tourism businesses and destinations.
Global Sustainable Tourism Council – GSTC Criteria

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