PICTURE: STEVE DUNLOP
ROUND TABLE
HOW WILL TRADE FACE
ITS RESPONSIBILITIES?
How far has the
industry come in
developing sustainable
tourism?
Travel Weekly
and The Travel
Foundation hosted
a discussion
among some
of those at the
leading edge of
developments.
Ian Taylor reports
THE PANEL
Sue Hurdle, chief executive,
The Travel Foundation
Sarah Holloway, sustainable
development manager,
TUI Travel
Trudie Drake, environmental
aff airs manager, British
Airways (Trudie has since
left BA)
Richard Short, environment
manager, Accor Hotels
Stephanie Draper, business
programme deputy director,
Forum for the Future
John de Vial, quality and
safety director, Thomas
Cook, ABTA board member
Zoe Brown, brand
marketing manager, The
Co-operative Travel Group
Noel Josephides, managing
director, Sunvil Holidays,
ABTA board member
Orestis Rossides,
UK director, Cyprus
Tourism Organisation
Luis Rendon, PR liaison
offi cer, Mexico Tourism
Board
24| Travel Weekly | March 6 2009
From left, are Richard Short, John de Vial, Trudie Drake, Sarah Holloway, Luis Rendon
TW: Do consumers
understand what is meant
by sustainable tourism?
Sue Hurdle: We commissioned
research among consumers
buying mainstream holidays
and found they did not understand
sustainable tourism at
all. But they could get their
heads around the idea of being
‘green’. It seemed to press more
buttons.
Sarah Holloway: Do we need
to put a name on this? Do
consumers really need to
understand everything about
sustainable tourism to make
holidays more sustainable?
Richard Short: ‘Green’ is
familiar to people. Sustainable
tourism is relatively new. Accor
Hotels has a green agenda. We
started with 15 initiatives and
hotels could choose which ones
they wanted to comply with.
Now we have 65 standards we
ask hotels to meet. We were
among the fi rst to join the Green
Globe accreditation scheme,
adopting it to test our green
credentials and talk about
sustainability. We want to be
able to say we are responsible
because someone else says so.
Sue Hurdle: We can get too
wound up about the name. But
in the short term, using the
word green appears a potential
advantage in identifying a
product that is better for the
environment. Perhaps a set of
terms would be useful, which
“A green agenda is
risky for the travel
industry, it’s a
hostage to fortune
when 95% of the
carbon impact of
a holiday will be
down to the fl ight”
would eventually disappear in
the future.
Trudie Drake: At British
Airways we want to be responsible.
We do not use the word
green. Our customers expect us
to address these issues.
Stephanie Draper: What we
are trying to do is be sustainable,
but we do not try to
engage consumers on that.
A green agenda is risky for the
travel industry, it’s a hostage to
fortune when 95% of the
carbon impact of a holiday will
be down to the fl ight. It leaves
companies open to accusations
of green-wash. Sustainability
allows you to talk about the
impact of tourism on destinations
– to talk about the benefi
ts of travel. Sustainable tourism
can provide a positive
agenda.
John de Vial: Sustainability
brings in other issues. It’s
better in a business environment
and for using with
investors, and that is hugely
important.
Richard Short: Stephanie’s
suggestion that green is a
hostage to fortune sums up the
situation nicely. We want to
break out of the niche we are in
and green puts us in a niche.
We want to be sustainable. The
term environmentally friendly
is used less and less. Sustainability
is more accurate and the
more we use it, the more it will
be picked up.
TW: How important are
travel agents in developing
responsible travel?
Zoe Brown: We talk about
responsible tourism at The Cooperative
Travel Group. Getting
the staff to buy into it is key.
They are selling to the consumer.
We have produced laminated
cards to explain what we are
doing. These explain where the
money goes from consumer
donations [added to holiday
prices] and customers can see
the projects when they are on
holiday if they choose too.
Sarah Holloway: At TUI Travel
we operate a World Care fund
and focus on the projects it supports.
Our staff have to know all
about it. They probably only
have about 15 seconds to
convince a customer it is worthwhile.
We use the fund as a tool
to engage with clients, to illustrate
that there are environmental
consequences of any holiday.
Noel Josephides: It is easier if
you are TUI or Thomas Cook.
You can tell staff what to do. At
Sunvil we deal mainly with the
independent sector and independent
agents do not want
extra hassle. We add a £3.80
opt-out charge for carbon
offsetting and £1 for The Travel
Foundation. I speak to agents
every week who object to the
fact we add this. They say it
messes up their accounts. It is
only because I keep forcing the
issue that we carry on. Our
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