Comment: Sustainability won’t be easy, but it is within reach

I sometimes wonder where the sustainability agenda would be without the threat of climate change. It is climate change that has made people sit up, jolted politicians out of their complacency and encouraged companies to pioneer low-carbon products and operations.

Such developments can make a difference – in every sector. We all have a part to play in making tourism as sustainable as possible.

Sustainable tourism is about people, places, biodiversity, clean and healthy environments, communities, buildings, culture and a lot more besides. But the tourism industry faces a raft of challenges.

I've worked with the industry since I took the role of environmental adviser to the World Travel and Tourism Council in 1992. Very few people wanted to listen in those days.

The industry was booming. Environmentalists were a pain in the neck. Cheap flights were opening up the world, and there was always another “pristine destination” to move to if overcrowding or pollution got too bad.

There has been real progress over the past 17 years. A few weeks ago, ABTA, British Airways, Carnival UK, The Co-operative Travel, The Travel Foundation, Thomas Cook and TUI Travel, joined Forum for the Future in launching Tourism 2023, which sets out a vision for a profitable and sustainable industry.

There is no reason why we should not get there by 2023, but it requires real leadership. There are still far too many in the industry who think this is someone else's responsibility or that we have unlimited time.

They are wrong on both counts, as this issue of Travel Weekly shows.