The industry needs to promote the positives of travel to avoid heavy taxation because of its carbon footprint, firms have told a Barclays webcast.
Inside Travel Group founder Simon King and Flight Centre Travel Group chief financial officer Adam Murray argued the industry needed to make more of the benefits travel can offer while working to mitigate any negative impact it has on the environment.
Speaking on the Barclays-hosted webcast on the travel sector the week after the UN’s Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow where sustainable tourism coalition was formed, King said: “Travel needs to take the lead.
“As an industry it’s important we emphasise the positives our industry has. But we have to act on the carbon footprint as well and do what we can to mitigate that and be honest on where we can improve.”
Inside Travel Group, which owns the brands InsideJapan Tours and InsideAsia Tours, said it had already worked hard to put changes in place within its own company.
He added: “It takes some research to do this. We have become Travelife certified with Abta and that’s helped us get house in order. We have got a global sustainability manager in four days a week.”
The company measures and offsets all the emissions from staff travel and its own offices and offsets every trip it sells.
Murray agreed the industry had to be proactive and find a “compelling story around travel”.
He said: “The travel industry needs to get out the [messages about the] benefits and positives of travel.
“My fear is if we don’t do this as an industry we will be very easy targets. It‘s very easy for government to react to customer sentiment and start throwing taxes out there and then you get to the position where travel is not available for everyone and becomes a privilege.”
The Travel Network Group chief executive Gary Lewis stressed it was important for travel companies to act now.
He said: “We have to be able to develop practical things not just pay lip service in the next 12 months. We cannot really influence airlines but we can influence what services customers buy.”
Barclays head of travel Christian Wimshurst told the webcast that companies needed to have sustainability on their board agendas.
He said: “The focus will be on recovery over next 12 to 18 months but every business in the travel sector can start to do their own little bit towards sustainability. The key is giving customer the information so they can make the right decision.”