THE TRAVEL industry has been warned to act now to limit the impact it has on the environment – or risk unwanted regulation.
Speaking at the Institute of Travel and Tourism conference in Oman, ex-Conservative leader Michael Howard called for an industry-wide green accreditation scheme, and said the ITT is the organisation to set it up.
“If you don’t do anything, you will be taxed,” said Howard. “The conservation of the earth is the greatest challenge we face and tourism is at the heart of the debate. Tourism has significant environmental consequences. The readiness of a political party to tax air travel is rapidly being seen as a litmus test of its environmental credentials.”
Hoseasons chief executive Richard Carrick said the industry had an obligation to the environment, but there was a mixed reaction to how a trade accreditation scheme would work or who should drive it.
ITT chairman Steven Freudmann said his organisation would be happy to take up the challenge, while others felt it was a role for ABTA.
Managing director of Advantage travel agency consortium John McEwan said: “We need to have one group that brings together all interested parties so we can discuss this properly.”
The Federation of Tour Operators is piloting a handbook that enables suppliers, operators and hotels to carry out self-assessments in a bid to raise green standards.
Director-general Andy Cooper said 50 hotels are trialling the programme. He said the sector needs to lobby far more effectively if it is to widen the political debate away from increased taxation or regulation.
“We need to help the Government understand the issues and the potential social impacts there would be not only on the average person’s ability to travel but the impact in those countries that rely on tourism if there was to be, for example, an aviation tax,” he added.
Coventry Airport chairman Bill Savage agreed. “I am concerned aviation will be blamed for all environmental problems,” he said.
But Labour peer Lord Snape, chairman of the Coventry Airport consultative committee, said it was the job of international governments to deal with the environmental impact, not the trade’s. “I disagree with the view that it is somehow your job to make people feel guilty about taking long-haul flights,” he said.
Howard called on airlines to give passengers the option of offsetting their travel by making contributions to environmental schemes, such as Climatecare.org, that plants trees to offset carbon emissions from air travel.
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