he internet has fundamentally changed the way we travel. Whether it’s finding inspiration on Instagram, staying on Airbnb and Trivago, or booking flights through Skyscanner, the reign of the travel brochure is over.

A new feature of Ecosia, the eco-designed search engine that plants a tree with every online search, wants to make your vacation planning a little more environmentally friendly.

Called Ecosia Travel, the new feature launched today allows people to search and book a hotel for their next trip through the search engine, powered by HotelsCombined. For every hotel room booked through Ecosia Travel, the company will use 100% of its profits to plant an average of 26 trees.

Since the platform’s launch in 2009, it has planted over 61 million trees in places like Indonesia and Madagascar and this new commitment will push that number forward.

A hotel room booked in exchange for 26 trees? It seems like a very good deal for the environment.

Ecosia has tested the new feature in its native Germany and is now rolling it out in Europe, the United States, New Zealand and Australia. Over the next few months, Ecosia Travel will also be available worldwide.

Ecosia Founder and CEO Christian Kroll explained the new feature this way: “Travel is a big part of our life, but it has a carbon footprint. We want to give Ecosia users the opportunity to make an eco-friendly choice when planning their next trip. It is time for the industry to step up and do better and we are proud to be part of a movement towards fairer and more sustainable form of travel.

To access the new Ecosia Travel functionality, search for “hotel” through Ecosia or go directly to it by clicking on the “more” link on the search results page. With this, travelers will be able to compare hotel deals by price, star rating or guest rating to find the right place to stay.

In addition to planting trees from the profits, Ecosia hopes to promote more sustainable forms of travel on the platform, such as eco-friendly hotels, and promote ways for people to compare their carbon footprint between different transportation options.

With mass tourism accounting for around 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, finding more sustainable ways to travel is a priority in 2019 – and it looks like Ecosia Travel is another tool on which to build. an eco-conscious break.