Hanyang University Study Finds Carbon-Based Hotel Pricing Increases Conservation Intentions

A study led by Professor Hakseung Shin and colleagues at Hanyang University found that tourists were more likely to report intentions to conserve energy and water when accommodation prices were tied to their resource use. The research showed that carbon-based pricing, where guests pay according to their consumption of resources such as electricity, water, heating, cooling, or linen services, increased intentions to engage in conservation behaviors. The study was made available online on May 22, 2026, and published in Volume 119 of the Annals of Tourism Research on July 1, 2026.

The research team conducted three experiments using realistic hotel and short-term rental booking scenarios to test how different pricing structures influenced participants’ intentions to conserve resources during their stay. Participants who were informed that wasteful consumption could increase their costs reported stronger intentions to conserve resources. Surcharge-based pricing, in which higher resource use resulted in additional charges, was more effective at encouraging conservation intentions than discount-based pricing, in which lower consumption earned a reward. Discount incentives produced conservation intentions comparable to surcharge pricing.

The study found that the presentation of environmental costs affected participants’ responses. When environmental charges were itemized separately rather than bundled into the total price, participants reported stronger intentions to conserve. The findings suggest that making environmental costs visible can increase their influence on consumer decision-making.

The researchers noted that carbon-based pricing systems could be implemented in hotels, short-term rentals, and tourism platforms to either reward low-impact behavior or charge for excessive resource use. The study suggests that such approaches could become more relevant as smart technologies enable tracking of individual resource consumption, potentially integrating environmental considerations into routine travel decisions.

The study used hypothetical booking scenarios and measured behavioral intentions rather than actual behavior. The researchers stated that future studies are needed to determine whether the observed effects translate to real-world tourism settings.

The original paper, titled “Paying for carbon: CO₂-based pricing mechanisms and pro-environmental behavior in tourism,” was published in the Annals of Tourism Research. The DOI is https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2026.104209.