Touring and adventure specialists can help tackle poverty, overtourism and the climate crisis, despite the impact of aviation emissions, say operators and others in the sector.
Brian Young, G Adventures’ EMEA managing director, told the Association of Touring and Adventure Suppliers (Atas) conference: “There is a lot of focus on the negatives; we need to balance that out with positives such as community tourism which has the power to change people’s lives.
“We couldn’t do that if we did not travel.”
G Adventures uses ‘ripple’ scores to show the amount of money that stays within local communities and works with Reforest on its ‘Trees for Days’ carbon mitigation initiative, for which it does not charge clients.
“For every day on a G Adventures tour, we grow a tree. It grows in areas where we have community tourism projects,” he said.
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He cited the example of a restaurant in Cambodia where clients can eat and locals learn skills such as cooking, front-of-house and management.
Another project, Women on Wheels, offers airport transfers in India and empowers women, he added.
“Trees for Days has a massive impact,” he told delegates.
“It involves 135 communities directly, and with non-direct impacts, that is 110,000 people who benefit from us planting trees. We are growing three million trees.”
Saunders Carmichael-Brown, a presenter, sustainability expert and AE Expeditions expert, said carbon emissions are the “elephant in the room”.
But he pointed out that planes now have better fuel efficiency than 10 years ago.
“Without travel, we would be in a worse place because of a lack of awareness about [sustainability],” he said.
“We need to put pressure on politicians and organisations.”
Dana Moore, director of operations for climate solutions at Trees4Travel, outlined how her company works with business and leisure companies and has a new venture, Zeero, supporting the development of sustainable fuels for airlines, cruise ships and other types of transport.
Young agreed that consumers are not prepared to pay extra for sustainable initiatives but said that seeing community tourism projects does raise awareness.
“Customers have to travel to see the impact first-hand,” he said.
“The penny drops when they are there.
“We recently had 450 people in India (for the GX summit) to see community tourism.
“People want an amazing holiday but also a positive impact.”
• Operators on another panel outlined how the touring and adventure sector can help tackle the problems of overtourism.
Simon Applebaum, managing director of Gold Medal, parent of the Incredible Journeys touring brand, said: “Touring can disperse people and their spending – and they spend longer in destinations.”
He said “it is not the end of the world” if there are curbs on numbers of tourists in destinations, as touring and adventure specialists provide “quality guests…guests that destinations want”.
Niel Alobaidi, Newmarket Holidays chief executive, added: “Inherently, touring does not go to overtourism places; most itineraries take people to other places and we spread the wealth.
“We are the most battle-hardened industry; we have lived through the pandemic, volcanoes and tsunamis.
“We are brilliant at pivoting and demand will not go away.”
From left: Saunders Carmichael-Brown, Dana Moore and Brian Young