TTA Worldchoice is working with the Travel Foundation and responsibletravel.com in a bid to become the greenest travel consortium in the UK.
Speaking at the TTA Worldchoice annual conference today in Heathrow, managing director Simon Hargreaves said members could not afford to ignore the growing green market.
He said: “Some 3% of consumers are turbo nutter environmentalists – that’s not the market we’re going for. Around 30% of holidaymakers feel they ought to know what the alternatives are and that number has grown substantially.
“We want members to feel comfortable talking to customers about green travel. It is a growing market so don’t ignore it.”
To help grow agents’ knowledge of the issue, TTA Worldchoice is to make the Travel Foundation’s Make Travel Greener quiz available to members.
The quiz is devised to test people’s knowledge on responsible travel issues and is part of a wider education campaign by the Travel Foundation. The quiz is available from Monday at www.maketravelgreener.com/ttaworldchoice.
The consortium is also working with responsibletravel.com to find ways to make green holidays available to members.
Responsibletravel.com managing director Justin Francis said: “Agents have an unrivalled opportunity to spread the word about responsible tourism, and to offer new and more responsible products.”
Hargreaves urged travel companies to make sure they have a green policy, look at the green practices of their suppliers and look at how to reduce their carbon footprint.