March 6 2009

TRAVEL WEEKLY SAYS

Lead on sustainability

Martin Couzins Managing Editor

Think ‘green’ and what does your mind conjure up? The environment? Sustainability? Carbon offsetting? More charges for consumers? More red tape for your business? All elements of the green debate were touched upon at a recent Travel Weekly/Travel Foundation round table (see pages 24-31) and the fi rst thing to note is that green is probably the least effective way to describe travel. There is nothing green about fl ying and to label the industry’s environmental concerns ‘green’ is asking for trouble. We have probably all felt the ‘greenwash’ backlash. That doesn’t mean we need to get lost in semantics, but it would be more useful to talk in terms

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34 | Travel Weekly | March 6 2009

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of sustainability and responsibility because this is what we are talking about: the ability for travel to have a positive impact on destinations.

“The travel industry has its work cut out to show customers the way on sustainable tourism”

The industry has come a long way in the past 10 years, but there is still a long way to go. Initiatives by operators, travel agent groups and hoteliers to raise standards and increase the profi le of responsible tourism are having a real impact. But if the views of Noel Josephides at Sunvil are anything to go by, there is a lot more that travel agents can do to engage their customers. First, agents must understand the positive

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impact tourism can have on destinations. Talk to The Travel Foundation – it will have numerous examples of how local communities are benefi ting from tourism. Once you have a positive story, share it. Let consumers know how much of the cost of the holiday will go to the local community. This way consumers start to learn about the impact of their holiday on a destination. The Co-operative Travel Group is already sharing this information with customers. With the government pledged to make aggressive cuts in CO2 emissions, the travel industry has its work cut out to show customers the way on sustainable tourism. We really need to be leading here, not following. Operators, hoteliers and airlines continue to talk about these issues with destinations. Now is the time for agents to get to grips with the issues and start having sensible discussions with consumers that focus on the benefi ts of sustainable tourism.

For practical advice for travel agents see www.gazetteers.com

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