EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Keep Your Nerve says UK Travel Foundation Boss

Sue Hurdle, Chief Executive of the Travel Foundation talks exclusively to Valere Tjolle, editor of VISION on Sustainable Tourism.

The Travel Foundation, the government & industry-backed sustainable tourism charity, helps the UK travel industry to take effective action on sustainable tourism. It offers a unique resource to the tourism industry, helping to safeguard resources on which business depends and balancing the need for sustainability with profitability.

The Foundation’s focus is on protecting and enhancing the environment and improving the well-being of destination communities. Enriching the tourism experience, now and in to the future.

Sue’s career began with Thomas Cook, which in 1993, sponsored her Master’s degree in "Tourism & Social Responsibility". Inspired by what she learned, Sue set about persuading leading travel companies that sustainability is good for business and five years later, The Travel Foundation was launched – the world’s first industry partnership to help companies put sustainable tourism into practice.

Q: What do you see as the greatest sustainable tourism achievement to date?

A: In the industry as a whole – the acknowledgement by the UK’s largest, mass travel companies that there is a need to do something about their economic, social and environmental impact on destinations their business is dependent on. The UK’s leading travel companies recognised this a few years ago and what is now pleasing is the effort many of them are making to do something about it. The major companies are investing financially in staff and other resources to begin to put their own houses in order. There is a very long way to go, of course, but this is a significant step nonetheless – and it would appear that the UK is ahead of the game amongst mass travel companies (operators and agents) in tourist-generating countries. Many smaller, specialist tour operators have been on the case for ages of course.

By the Travel Foundation – having played a part in encouraging these largest UK companies to take action – and creating a model that other tourist-generating countries are beginning to replicate. The Travel Foundation Netherlands launched just over a year ago and there is interest from others now in creating similar models.

Q: What do you see as a key factor to riding the storm in 2009?

A: In the industry as a whole – holding our nerve and not burying our heads in the sand about sustainability issues. Too many in the media would have us believe that the recession will push green issues out of the window. If we listen to them, we will persuade ourselves that must be the case. Instead, if we take time to step back and consider the matter, we will see that sustainability is key to the quality of the business – to providing a top notch holiday product for customers (great food, a pristine environment, friendly locals, different and interesting things to do), to motivating and retaining staff, and in regard to energy and water consumption at least – to keeping costs down!

By the Travel Foundation – supporting our industry partners in their endeavours to build sustainability into the heart of the business. Assisting them with training to help staff understand why this is important and how they can play their part. We are a resource for the industry so please use us! We also need to keep supporting the projects we have started to help those destination communities weather the storm.

Q: The future looks pretty challenging – climate change, global political instability, the economic situation, fuel, food, water, population increases, changes in tourism source markets. Which of these challenges do you think hold the most danger, and which hold the most potential opportunities?

A: All of the above! It depends how far ahead we are looking. In the short term, the economy is inevitably going to challenge us most and in the longer term, it will no doubt be climate change, since this will affect everything else. In the medium term, though, I suspect a lack of water – itself exacerbated by climate change and in turn also affecting many of the other issues – may creep up on us, especially in our favourite holiday destinations. We have seen already that parts of Spain and Cyprus came close to running out of water in 2008 and destinations like the Canaries have to manufacture a large proportion of their water. If, as expected, oil prices rise again and stay high, this could make some of the current solutions of shipping in supplies or using oil to create “fresh” water through desalination, uneconomic. We can of course play our part in deferring this problem by not taking water for granted – we need to waste less, introduce technologies to collect and recycle water and consider alternative ways to have fun, such as playing golf or skiing on sand instead of grass and snow in arid countries.

Faced with these challenges, the greatest opportunity is for us to adapt – something we are pretty good at. We are already seeing tour operators beginning to feature holidays by train, creating businesses in the new source markets and expanding into domestic tourism. No doubt that will continue.

Q: Are you willing to be a little brave and tell us how you see it in 2020? 2050?

A: Of course, I don’t have a crystal ball, but I imagine that by 2020 the portfolios of the most enterprising companies will have further expanded internationally to take advantage of changing source markets. Perhaps we will see the first “truly sustainable” all-inclusive hotel promoted to UK holiday makers, having a minimal environmental footprint and offering real benefits to local people through the supply chain and other community initiatives.

By 2050 the term “sustainable tourism” as we use it today probably won’t exist. The principles of good environmental practice in operations and product differentiation through local sourcing of foods, furnishings and excursions will be the norm. It will have been integrated into the way the industry does business.

I am an optimist of course – but that’s why I do this job!

Q: What do you suggest should be the industry’s key focus issue in 2009?

Survival, I suspect! Cost cutting is likely to be at the top of most agendas and whether in the UK office or overseas. Putting one’s own house in order in sustainability terms can also have cost saving benefits – there are things we can all do to consume less and reduce the cost of energy and water bills as a start. UK companies can encourage overseas suppliers to do the same to help their own survival. Consider what can be sourced locally at a cheaper price – from stationery to tomatoes – it’s worth shopping around. Some Caribbean hoteliers we have been working with have found local suppliers can provide lettuce at half the cost of their wholesaler sourcing from overseas. These short-term, cost saving measures are a first step along the way to a more sustainable business.

Q: And what will the Travel Foundation’s be?
A: Continuing to promote the organisation as a resource to help the industry change.

Q: The Travel Foundation has made tremendous strides in the last few years. Where do you see it going, and what are the next few steps?
Six years ago, when we launched The Travel Foundation, someone asked me what success would look like for The Travel Foundation and my response was that we will know we have succeeded when we have done ourselves out of a job! Our aim is for the travel industry to build sustainability into the heart of the business so firmly that there would be no need for The Travel Foundation any more. I suspect that may take a while, however.

In the meantime, we will continue to promote The Travel Foundation to the trade as a resource to help companies understand what they can do to become more sustainable. We would like to work with more companies so we will be endeavouring to improve how we communicate what we do and how we can help.

Overseas, we will continue to support initiatives that demonstrate what sustainable tourism looks like in practice. We will also build our links with other tourist-generating countries to develop opportunities to scale up positive change in destinations that our respective holiday makers “share”.

Specifically, having developed a wide range of practical tools and projects, we are currently looking to consolidate our efforts into three key areas:
• Helping travel companies to build sustainability into day to day business activities – via awareness raising and training
• Promoting sustainable livelihoods in destinations – primarily through stimulating supply chains in food, crafts and excursions
• Promoting best operational practice in destinations – supporting initiatives like Travelife to “green” hotels and ground operations