A survey was conducted to what extent the rising prices of flights and climate change has affected travel behaviour this year. 40 percent of respondents believe that global warming is just media hype.

Due to rising energy prices, travellers have had to dig deeper into their pockets to travel abroad than in previous months. Over 2,000 trivago members were surveyed and results show that the rising prices of flights is influencing travel plans more than increasing discussions about global warming.

The increasing price of flights has led to 50 percent of Brits changing their travel plans; 10 percent flew less, 21 percent stayed at home and 4 percent did not make any long-distance trips. Only half of the travellers who participated in the survey did not change their travel behaviour.

Hardly any Brits changed their travel plans due to climate change (16 percent).

Over 80 percent are skeptical about global warming, 40 percent believe it is all media hype and only 4 percent of respondents stopped flying as much. Surprisingly the results showed that no British travellers chose to stay in ecologically friendly hotels.

In other European countries there is less skepticism: 24 percent of the Germans and 30 percent of the French think that climate change is media hype.

The most change occurred in Spain in regards to the rising flight prices, 71 percent travelled less due to increasing fares. In regards to climate change, 11 percent of the Southern European countries opted to change their travel plans.

The trivago survey "How did the rising costs of air travel influence your travel plans" was answered by 2359 trivago members throughout August 2008. The trivago survey "Did the debate about global warming change your travel habits" was answered by 2814 trivago members throughout September 2008.

A graph with the results of the "How did the rising costs of air travel influence your travel plans" can be found here:
http://img.trivago.com/contentimages/press/images/trivago_flights.pdf

A graph with the results of the "Did the debate about global warming change your travel
habits" can be found here: http://img.trivago.com/contentimages/press/images/trivago_climate.pdf