The environment has been on the mind of many people over the last several years. The news media has brought it to the forefront of the current events. Carbon footprints and recycling have become a part of every day communications. But the troubled economy has managed to overshadow all of the good ideas and thoughts about the environment.

Travelers still thank that it is a good idea to be green. Most support recycling, low flow toilets and other "green" practices. It is even becoming accepted that being green does not require making sacrifices of amenities - you can still enjoy a great hotel suite and be pampered where ever you choose to stay.

Green travel is about the practices of the hotel and what it is doing to make the environment and not just about roughing it. In the past many travelers have been willing to pay premium prices in order to insure that the hotels and travel companies were practicing green habits. The tightening economy has not lessened travelers? desires for green practices but it has shifted the responsibility.

Today consumers expect travel companies, hotels and others in the travel industry to act responsibly concerning the environment. Instead of paying extra for green travel consumers are expecting green travel to be the normal way of doing things.

The environment is important to most of the travelers today. Acting responsibly toward the environment is something that consumers want to do but are no longer willing to pay extra in order to accomplish the task. Now that the economy is tightening and budgets for travel are becoming smaller for most consumers they are expecting the green practices to be part of the basic offerings of the hotels and travel industry instead of something extra that the consumer must pay to insure.