The need for action on sustainability could hardly be sharper as wildfires wreak havoc in destinations from Portugal to California and scientists warn of worse to come from global warming.
So it’s heartening to hear of progress in the industry, with Travel Counsellors revealing a major programme of work on sustainability with The Travel Foundation.”
This could prove a defining project for the independent agents’ sector, which, until now, has had to rely on a handful of tour operators to identify sustainable hotels or lead the way on developing sustainable excursions.
I look forward to hearing more from Travel Counsellors and seeing more from agents’ consortia in keeping with the great strides made by Tui in this area. The Tui Group is again responsible for many of the highlights in this special issue on sustainable tourism, having set out – as sustainability director Jane Ashton says – “to create a sea change across the leisure tourism sector”.
We report on Tui’s confirmation of the positive impact of hotel sustainability certification, the latest certification achieved by Intrepid, The Travel Foundation’s most-recent destination project and training for agents, and the latest initiatives by Tui and the Tui Care Foundation, with a feature on the Tui Academy.
Intrepid co-founder Darrell Wade and The Travel Foundation’s Salli Felton also joined David Dingle of Carnival UK, Adam Goldstein of Royal Caribbean Cruises, Chris Lehane of Airbnb and Matthew Upchurch of luxury travel network Virtuoso to debate growing concerns about over-tourism.
I hope you enjoy this edition – focusing on a very important issue.
Comment from Travel Weekly, August 9 edition