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It's tough.
I'm flying to France instead of boat/tunnel+driving or train+driving because; 1) it's cheaper, 2) it's more convenient for my particular circumstances right now.
But in future I will consider it more.
hugo7-
It really shouldn't be cheaper. Air travel is cheap because so little of it is taxed. We've become accustomed to cheap air travel and so prying that away will be difficult, but it needs to happen.
I just checked - If I need to be in Edinburgh by early afternoon on Monday, I could get the train for £75 or fly for £35. That is madness.
Scrabble
I've spent the last couple of weeks mulling over how you could get people to think twice before booking air travel (something I'm wrestling with on a more personal level)...one of the things I can remember when I was online dating was how prominent travel was among people's outward facing 'brand' (for want of a better description) and if that continues, then trying to temper people's air travel habit is going to be very hard.
Campaigns in the past such as Expedia's Travel Yourself Interesting make it very explicit and we can expect more of the same with Airbnb looking to pump out video content encouraging people to travel more...but you also see travel getting under the skin through less explicitly marketing based channels such as social media where people are keen to show they're engaging with the 'experiential economy.'
I definitely think there's a role for government to bring onboard market externalities which aren't part of consumers' current purchase decisions but I also think a behavioural change programme is needed if we're to make it just as attractive to cycle around Wales as it is to visit Machu Picchu (and I'm talking for the general public and not the denizens of LFGSS).
Interested in hearing peoples thoughts as if climate change is to be addressed, figure there needs to be change at an individual as well as government level and it would be great to do this in a way that was positive (value of local/community...) without resorting to jingoism (pork pies and union jacks ain't going to do it for me)