Evaluating Generation Z’s environmental awareness and accommodation preferences through online travel agencies

Abstract

Generation Z have become hugely important travellers in recent years. They are transforming the way accommodation is chosen through Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), which means it is important to understand their preferences. As a result, this paper focuses on the scoring systems of the OTAs and examines the priorities of this generation, with the view to improving the rating procedures and facilitating the selection of accommodation. For this purpose, the paper presents a new approach that combines decision-making procedures and compositional data analysis to examine the preferences of this type of traveller. Likewise, this contribution explores the environmental awareness of young people through Expedia’s eco-friendly criterion, it being the first OTA to incorporate environmental aspects into its scoring system.