Aito companies urged to 'start small and start now' with sustainable actions

Aito companies have been urged to “start small and start now” with sustainable actions to reap commercial benefit and aid staff retention.

Zoe Savage-Morton, responsible travel manager at tour operator Lusso, told a panel debate that firms should look at what they were already doing in a sustainable way and consider how to improve on that.

Savage-Morton, co-chair of the sustainable tourism committee at the Specialist Travel Association (Aito), said: “Start small, start now and don’t do it alone.

“Look at what you are already doing and build in sustainable activity. When you paying your bills and waste management, take a look at the volumes and try to reduce them. It’s all part of starting to act sustainably. Small, steady actions create momentum with commercial benefit.”

She said Lusso had become more sustainable through a range of actions, including measuring electricity and water usage to reduce costs, developing supplier standards and traveller guidelines, improving processes to make decision-making easier and reviewing destination activities.

She said one “stand out benefit” so far had been staff retention.

“Where they [staff] saw we were acting more responsibly and ethically then they aligned with our values as well,” she said, but admitted: “It’s a very slow process.”

Sam Clark, managing director, Experience Travel Group, encouraged each Aito company to put forward a staff member to join the association’s sustainability webinars to get ideas on how to act. “I don’t think there there are enough joining,” he added.

Women in Travel founder Alessandra LoTofu Alonso suggested business leaders consult with staff to get ideas on how to make their companies more sustainable. 

She said: “Delegate and ask staff what they would like to do… if you want retention and innovation you have to include them.”

She added companies should also consider the impact of their operations on the communities in which they travel to.

Former Aito chair Richard Hearn, founder of Inn Travel and co-founding director of sustainable business Village Ways, said: “There can only be commercial disadvantage by not engaging.”

Also on the panel, Pedro Medina, deputy director of the Spanish Tourist Office, cited successful efforts by Spanish cities to control over-tourism, adding: “There are many benefits to doing things in the right way.”