Travel companies are being urged to make a pledge to do just one thing to support sustainable holidays as part of this year’s Make Holidays Greener campaign.
This awareness raising promotion by the Travel Foundation will run in July.
A new section on the organisation’s website has been developed with ideas about how firms can get involved.
This year’s campaign theme is ‘link to what’s local’.
Travel Foundation acting chief executive Salli Felton said: “We want to raise awareness about the things that make holidays special – local culture, local delicacies and souvenirs, local history, the environment and above all, local people.
“Greener, sustainable, responsible – whatever we call it – we want people to remember that holidays enable local people to benefit from tourism, and it’s the local people who help holidaymakers have unique and memorable experiences.”
The Travel Foundation is encouraging travel businesses to go that extra mile to inspire staff and customers with greener holidays, and how they can make a difference.
Tui UK & Ireland has pledged to find out about the local people in destinations who are helping travellers experience local cultures, and making their holiday extra special
Thomas Cook is to use a ‘greener excursions’ tool in its charter destinations to assess the sustainability of its trips.
HF Holidays is to train staff and volunteer leaders with the Foundation’s ‘go greener holidays’ training quiz on the travelfoundationtraining.com website.
Ideas for pledges are listed online at thetravelfoundation.org.uk/greenerhols/find_out_more
They include running training workshops for staff, holding events with local producers in destinations and developing a ‘holiday hero’ competition to find out how people in the local community are making holidays special.
Felton added: “This is about getting everyone who works in travel to think more about the part they can play in looking after our beautiful holiday destinations.”