Advantage Travel Partnership is looking at ways to increase members’ understanding of sustainable travel as part of its business strategy for the next three years.
The travel agency consortium is currently discussing plans internally and hopes to rubber-stamp projects to educate members in the coming months.
The move comes as agents report they are not yet being asked by customers for sustainable travel options despite the current Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow.
But leisure director Kelly Cookes said members were showing a “definite will” to increase their knowledge and confidence in discussing sustainable travel with clients as the issue was likely to grow in importance over time.
She said: “We are getting feedback from members that they want to feel more confident talking about this issue. That will be key over the next few months.
“We are currently redoing our strategy for the next three years and we are talking about this internally and coming up with a charter that will have specifics.”
Advantage is currently considering exactly what it will roll out for members, said Cookes, who added: “I think some of it will be training and education or how to guide someone for their holiday, and it’s definitely about working with partners that are really knowledgeable.”
She admitted members did not feel confident currently discussing sustainable travel and said the situation was made harder by the fact there was no ‘accreditation benchmark’ to help agents know which holidays or companies to recommend.
She said: “There is a lack of understanding as to what sustainability and carbon offsetting are, what the options are, and how to interpret the different requests.
“Agents are not confident about what to suggest. It’s about knowing the products and the language to use.”
Already the consortium has some partnerships in place with sustainable companies to share knowledge across the business and to help members. It is working with technology provider Thrust Carbon, which helps travel management companies to calculate carbon emissions of clients’ travel and gives them access to carbon offsetting schemes. This is used primarily by Advantage’s business travel agents.
Cookes said the industry had to get to the point where it felt comfortable with the sustainable travel “narrative”.
“It’s not going to end with Cop26,” she added. “We need to make it easier for members to identify who is doing what and what that means.
“It will start with education with what our supplier partners are doing. It could end with training on how to sell to a person who wants that [sustainable holiday] and how attract customers who want that. It could be complimentary to their business.”