ROUND TABLE
From left, are Sue Hurdle, Noel Josephides, Zoe Brown, Orestis Rossides, Stephanie Draper
reservations staff get hassle
from agents about it. It is unfortunate,
but through the trade
we are getting nowhere. I feel
we have gone backwards in the
last year. We will keep at it, but
unless we force the travel agency
sector to do something they
won’t do it. We need to make
this obligatory for the industry.
Richard Short: Why the need
to be so transparent? At Accor
we do not ask guests to add an
extra £1 on a bill for charity or
as a contribution to carbon
offsetting. We are not particularly
transparent about it. The
standard travel agency employs
two and a half people and its
margins are very small. People
will not donate if they are
making very little money.
John de Vial: It has a lot to do
with confi dence and we have to
build that. Part of the reason for
Noel’s experience is to do with
‘green wash’. There is a real
“This is not about
making holidays
more expensive.
It is about giving
people a choice
based on ethics,
not on price”
confi dence issue with carbon
offsetting. We have all had
mixed experiences with it,
whereas we have a very positive
experience with donations to
The Travel Foundation.
Zoe Brown: This is very new to
us. When we launched the
programme [of donations] last
July, shop staff were not enthusiastic.
It was just something
else they had to do, which
meant more sales talk. People
want a good price and every
£1 makes a difference.
It is diffi cult.
TW: Is responsible tourism
solely about charitable
donations? Does the diffi culty
Noel talked of just come
down to the cost of a holiday?
Stephanie Draper: This is not
about making holidays more
expensive. It is about giving
people a choice based on ethics,
not on price. We are talking
about engaging in better practice
across the board. Ideally,
you would take consumers out
of the loop, but there are things
we want consumers to do. One
is to do with behaviour. Can
people have one longer holiday
a year instead of a series of
breaks? Then there is engagement
with the local community,
contributing locally and being
aware of the impact of a holiday.
The industry could make
clear how much of the price of
a holiday goes to the local
community – say 6% or 12%.
A third is about rewarding good
behaviour. If people see a Green
Globe, for example, they know
a hotel or holiday is likely be
run more ethically and can
reward it. Donating to charity
is not part of this list.
Sue Hurdle: We have a vision
for the future, but what do we
do now? Tour operators are not
going to publicise the fact that
X amount of the price of a holiday
goes to people in destinations.
Staff are the key interface
with the public. If travel agents
do not really get this, there is a
job to do.
Stephanie Draper: The Travel
Foundation is important and
I’m not advising that it stop.
Educating consumers is
critically important, but an
emphasis on the consumer is
not going to crack this.
John de Vial: Offsetting is
clearly not working well. But
The Travel Foundation is about
doing your best in destination.
This needs industry leadership
and that is the role of The
Travel Foundation.
TW: Should the government
be doing more? Is the
industry doing enough?
Noel Josephides: The problem
is we cannot control capacity.
We are no longer the market
leaders. Companies such as
Ryanair do not care about what
we talk about. They have
hundreds of aircraft on order.
That is the problem. Sooner or
later the only way to control
these mavericks will be to
impose quotas.
Richard Short: Emissions
trading will add an element of
compulsion [when airlines join
the European Union scheme in
2012]. But Ryanair will be able
to carry on as it is. That is one of
the criticisms of emissions
trading – that companies will
be able to pay to pollute. In hotels
we pay for the amount of
packaging waste we produce.
We see it as a tax and do not
want to pay, so we are reducing
the amount we produce.
Trudie Drake: BA would like
to see Air Passenger Duty taken
off fares when emissions
trading is introduced.
John de Vial: We need an 80%
reduction in emissions, but the
mechanisms for doing that
have to be fair. APD is an
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