Holidaymakers have temporarily lost their focus on sustainability following the pandemic but will rapidly regain it, tour operators have predicted.
A WTM London sustainability panel said the issue had slipped down the agenda in the scramble to travel again after two years of confinement.
Chris Wright, managing director, Sunvil, said ‘flight shaming’ had become an issue among his clients in 2019. That, he said, had since disappeared. “It’s almost like the desperation to travel has overtaken.”
Sonal Patel, Audley Travel’s chief sustainability officer, also said other issues had come to the fore: “Over the last two years clients have been more concerned about health and safety regarding Covid than sustainability.”
However, the panel agreed the issue was climbing to the top of the agenda again.
Zina Bencheikh, managing director, EMEA, Intrepid Travel, said there was a sense of the returning ‘green’ ethos at WTM: “This is the first WTM where destinations are interested in sustainability and are contacting us to help them,” she said.
She described how the operator tackled the issue of flying – “the elephant in the room”. She said 20% of Intrepid product was now domestic, compared to less than 5% pre-pandemic. Intrepid has also halted the use of domestic flights in favour of boats and trains.
Patel described Audley Travel’s initiatives, which included a café project in Vietnam that taught hospitality skills to locals deemed at risk. Audley also has projects with schools near its own offices to teach about sustainability and careers in travel. An apprentice programme is being developed.
Wright said Sunvil worked with property owners to alleviate issues around water use, waste disposal and recycling. “We work outside of government,” he said, describing a project in Corfu where Sunvil had collaborated with a volunteer recycling group.
“We tend to work with small, owner-managed properties and we lead the conversation around conservation and waste management. The conversations are not all about numbers.”
He advised operators to “start off small” and described how a scheme to eliminate plastic bottles had led to some Sunvil properties having water tanks fitted for delivery of spring water.
Sunvil also now has a train travel option. “We have been really inspired. We really did not expect people to be interested, but everybody talks about slow travel now,” he said.
Sam Seward, managing director, Travelopia and Exodus Travels, said his small group tours were “inherently low impact”. New staff were wholly behind the sustainability ethos, he said.
“This year we have taken on 100 staff and everyone is aligned with the idea of improving life through travel. They make that really clear and our customers are inspired by it.”
He added: “We are carefully measuring our negative impact, but also the positive.” Examples were a rewilding project in Italy’s Apennines. He concluded: “Sustainability drives loyalty; that should be an incentive for any operator.”
—ENDS—
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