WebinarOnline
Beyond greenwashing: Aligning consumer ethics with corporate sustainability in hospitality marketing
Friday, 2 October 2026
A critical look at how hospitality marketing can support ethical consumer choices without greenwashing, combining insights on behaviour, evidence, trust and corporate accountability to distinguish credible sustainability communication from persuasive but unsupported claims.
About this event
Sustainability has become a prominent language of hospitality marketing, but confident claims do not always provide consumers with reliable grounds for choice. This webinar examines the relationship between ethical consumption, corporate responsibility and persuasive communication. It asks how businesses can explain environmental and social performance without simplifying uncertainty, overstating progress or shifting responsibility entirely onto individual guests.
The discussion will consider why people express strong ethical intentions yet often make decisions based on price, convenience, habit and trust. Research on consumer behaviour can reveal this gap without portraying travellers as inconsistent or uninformed. Attention will be given to the ways labels, narratives, evidence and service design influence perceptions of credibility across different markets.
A central theme is the distinction between effective sustainability communication and greenwashing. The session will explore the role of specific claims, comparable measures, independent scrutiny and honest acknowledgement of limitations. It will also consider how marketing teams can work with operational colleagues so that public messages reflect material changes rather than isolated campaigns or symbolic gestures.
The webinar will be relevant to researchers, students, marketers, destination professionals and hospitality managers. It will offer a clear framework for examining who makes a claim, what evidence supports it and how an audience may interpret it. The aim is to encourage marketing that respects consumer agency while helping organisations communicate genuine progress with precision, proportion and accountability. It will also consider how correction processes and accessible public evidence can preserve trust when targets are missed or earlier claims prove inaccurate.