ABTA is poised to unveil its own scheme to mitigate the environmental impact of travel, called Reduce Your Footprint.
Head of consumer affairs Keith Richards said: “The scheme will be unique in being travel and tourism focused. The benefits will go into travel, and as much as possible into destination-related projects.”
Richards hopes to finalise details next week with the Federation of Tour Operators, Association of Independent Tour Operators, and an unnamed carbon-offset provider. It is believed to be Carbon Offsets, the company set up by former British Airways head of sustainable business Hugh Somerville.
A small board of industry representatives will decide on the projects to support. These will be existing schemes – some overseen by sustainable tourism charity The Travel Foundation.
Richards said: “We are still discussing how to calculate emissions. The system is complicated, but we don’t want complexity upfront and don’t want to mislead people.
“We want to give a real idea of where the money goes, with a simple message that says, ‘These are your impacts, this is why you should do something and this is the benefit’.”