All aboard the green bandwagon

Comment by Jeremy Skidmore (www.jeremyskidmore.com)

Outside ABTA’s Convention centre, hundreds of unwanted trade newspapers piled up ever higher in the foyer, plastic wallets covered every inch of several large tables and leaflets were strewn around as far as the eye could see. Inside, delegates earnestly debated the green issue.

I don’t know whether ABTA’s directors continued weighing up the issues in chauffer-driven cars to the airport the next day, although I didn’t spot any of them on the coaches provided for the rest of us.

Meanwhile, journalists in Marbella were besieged by numerous operators who suddenly wanted to discuss their environmental policies. Eh? The last time most of them felt green was after 10 pints in the Irish bar.

But, of course, public opinion is changing and, when sales are at stake, suddenly we’re all tree-huggers.

Next year, expect M People’s “What have you done to make yourself feel proud?” to be replaced as the most popular anthem at conferences by Ocean Colour Scene’s “The day we caught the train” (and left the Jag at home).

If I worked for First Choice I’d be slightly miffed with all this bandwagon jumping. The operator escapes mickey-taking because it has been banging on about the environment – and making donations to worthy causes – for years, ever since going green was largely considered to be the domain of a few odd people who neither washed or worked.

Now the operator is launching a new opt-out carbon offset scheme and auditing its top 150 hotels, but may well get swamped in the rush of the johnnie-come-lately’s screaming because they are green. I think First Choice deserves some ‘first mover advantage’ in terms of loyalty from green bookers.

However, although I am deeply cynical about the motives of these born-again paper recyclers, in the end it doesn’t really matter, because at least they are doing something.

We all ought to be contributing to saving the planet. Personally, I shall be mapping out a carefully considered, long-term strategic development plan (corporate speak for making it up on the spot) on my flight to Australia next week.

Meanwhile, by far the most lively session of the conference was the first one, where ABTA chief executive Mark Tanzer bravely invited Travel Counsellors founder David Speakman to make a speech and ended by saying he wouldn’t be inviting him to his party.

Speakman wasted no time laying into the association for, he claimed, wasting agents’ money and being frankly incompetent (see our stories and webcast).

It prompted a journalist’s dream, with everyone having a pop at each other and ABTA and the CAA trying to determine would could possibly, may be, or is in danger of being, a package which required protection.

Unfortunately, there were no conclusions and no-one was any the wiser.

If you have any bright ideas for a new scheme of financial protection, please do send them in, but forget about a levy because, as Richard Jackson of the CAA said, you’re living in cloud cuckoo land if you think the government is interested.

We look forward to hearing your views.