The economic climate is not dampening consumers’ desire for responsible holidays, said Responsible Travel founder and chief executive Justin Francis.
The company – which was set up 10 years ago and now sells £15 million worth of holidays a year – said trends such as the growing demand for local sourcing of food are consumer trends the travel industry should consider.
Speaking at the Best of Britain and Ireland Travel Trade Forum last week he said: “People have not tapped into [responsible tourism] yet. Ten years on, [this market] is still at the beginning. It feels like frontier times.”
At the event, minister for tourism Barbara Follett unveiled the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s new sustainable tourism framework for England, entitled ‘Winning: a tourism strategy for 2012 and beyond’. She claimed the tourism industry needs to adopt more sustainable and environmentally friendly ways of working to secure its long-term future and combat climate change.