Make a pledge to Make Holidays Greener this year

Travel firms of all sizes urged to do just one green thing for campaign.

Travel firms of all shapes and sizes are being urged to make a pledge to do just one thing to support sustainable holidays as part of this year’s Make Holidays Greener campaign.

This year’s awareness raising campaign will run throughout the month of July and the Travel Foundation has launched a new section on the website this week with ideas about how firms can get involved.

This year, the campaign theme is ‘link to what’s local’.

Salli Felton, acting chief executive, The Travel Foundation said: "We want to raise awareness about the things that make holidays special – local culture, local delicacies and souvenirs, local history, the environment and above all, local people."

"Greener, sustainable, responsible – whatever we call it – we want people to remember that holidays enable local people to benefit from tourism, and it’s the local people who help holidaymakers have unique and memorable experiences."

This year the Travel Foundation is encouraging travel businesses to go that extra mile to inspire staff and customers with greener holidays, and how they can make a difference.

The industry is already getting behind this year’s campaign with the following pledges:

TUI UK & Ireland pledge to find out about the local people in destinations who are helping their customers experience local cultures, and making their holiday extra special

HF Holidays pledge to train staff and volunteer leaders with the Go Greener Holidays training quiz on http://www.travelfoundationtraining.com

Thomas Cook pledge to use the Greener Excursions tool in their charter destinations to assess the sustainability of their excursion programme

Ideas and inspiration for pledges are listed online at http://www.thetravelfoundation.org.uk/greenerhols/find_out_more and include:

Running training workshops for staff

Holding local producers events in destination so that customers can try local delicacies and buy local crafts

Running a ‘holiday hero’ competition to find out how people in the local community are making holidays special

Salli Felton added: "This is about getting everyone who works in travel to think more about the part they can play in looking after our beautiful holiday destinations."

To find out more about getting involved visit the website, tweet @travelTF using the hashtag #greenerhols or email [email protected]

Valere Tjolle

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