Europe’s biggest travel group will pull out of destinations and withdraw from hotels that do not comply with its environmental standards.
TUI UK and Ireland managing director Dermot Blastland issued the blunt warning at WTM yesterday, telling the Ministers’ Summit on Tourism and Climate Change:
‘In five years we want minimum standards in all our hotels. We will not feature hotels that do not comply.’
Blastland runs the UK’s biggest travel group and TUI carries 30 million passengers a year across Europe, featuring 200 destinations. He believes other companies will follow suit, saying: ‘Tour operators will withdraw from unsustainable hotels and destinations.’
Blastland acknowledged: ‘We are part of the problem of global warming.’ But he said customer demand would drive the move to more sustainable travel.
He revealed a recent TUI passenger survey found 59% of respondents would choose a holiday with a low impact on the environment if given the choice, and 77% favoured holidays offering a ‘fair deal’ to local people.
A resource-efficiency trial at five TUI holiday villages this year had cut running costs at each by about £200,000, said Blastland.