TUI appoints First Choice committed campaigner to board

Jane Ashton has been appointed Director of Group Sustainable Development at TUI Travel PLC.

She has held responsibility for sustainable development at TUI Travel PLC for three years, driving strategy, targets and performance whilst continuing to support TUI UK on sustainability.

She was originally appointed by Dermot Blastland and worked at First Choice.

Said Jane: “I’m obviously delighted, particularly as it reflects the Board’s real commitment to step up our work to integrate sustainability into the way we do business and into our forward strategy, at all levels and in all businesses across TUI Travel.”

Jane and her team have also focused on supporting businesses and suppliers in destination to achieve sustainability targets  which led to TUI Travel being listed in the FTSE4Good Index for meeting social, environmental and governance standards.

Recognised by the industry as a leader in her field, Jane was honoured at the 2010 Shine Awards with the Contribution to Sustainable Tourism Award and she collected the joint award for best contribution to responsible tourism in 2008 at the Responsible Travel Awards.

Jane will continue to work with TUI UK and report to Christian Cull, TUI UK Communications Director. Jane will also report to Jacky Simmonds, Group HR Director, who reports on sustainable development to the Group Management Board at TUI Travel.

‘It is our aim to build on TUI Travel’s sustainable development achievements and to continue to lead the industry with our approach to sustainability,’ said Peter Long, Chief Executive. ‘I know Jane will continue to champion this in her new role.’

Recently TUI, which owns both Thomson and First Choice, has announced 20 commitments to sustainable tourism that it wants to achieve by 2014.

The 20 targets include reducing carbon emissions from the company’s airlines by 6% between 2008 and 2014, reducing the number of brochure pages by 10% or 380 million pages and replacing printed tickets with e-tickets.

TUI also wants to cut carbon emissions by one million tonnes by investing in clean energy and energy efficiency projects in destination countries.

See interview with Jane www.travelmole.com/stories/1137809.php

Valere Tjolle
Valere Tjolle is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite. Special Offer on Sustainable Tourism Marketing Guide CLICK HERE Special Offer on Sustainable Tourism Ministers Briefing CLICK HERE