Savvy ways to sell responsible travel

For ideas to inspire customers in Greece, visit the Greek National Tourism Organisation’s sustainablegreece.co.uk platform, which promotes sustainable initiatives across Greece.

Intrepid’s collateral includes an editable poster agents can easily adapt to promote sustainable trips. And Ambassador and Travel Counsellor Helen Bateman creates videos for social media where she talks passionately about Intrepid products, which Cofman-Nicoresti praises for “really bringing it to life, and showing sustainability isn’t boring”.

Agents can access all these resources in the Selling Sustainable Travel Starter Kit. 

Cofman-Nicoresti also encourages agents to sample suppliers’ sustainability credentials first-hand. Intrepid offers discounts for agents’ own travel, incentives to win trips, and fams. “Our main focus is on myth-busting this idea that sustainable equals compromise, because it absolutely doesn’t,” she adds. “You can have the most fantastic trips, which are sustainable. Once you travel on a sustainable trip, you get it, and realise it’s amazing.”

AVOIDING GREENWASHING

Government research found that 40% of green claims made online could be misleading, so it’s important to ensure you don’t accidentally fall foul of greenwashing in your marketing. In some cases, presenting something as more environmentally-friendly than it is can be accidental, but some people will deliberately use environmentalism to divert attention from non-green actions.

Check out The Green Claims Code from the Competition and Markets Authority, which shares six points you can use to check your environmental claims are genuinely green. You can also use these to assess claims made by suppliers. The WWF encourages people to look out for four things to see if a product or business is genuine: buzzwords, evidence, verification and sustainability. Learn more in the WWF Guide to Greenwashing. 

Certifications are another useful tool to help assess a supplier’s commitment to sustainability, as they mean claims have been independently verified by an external body against set criteria. Look out for accreditation and certification programmes recognised by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), such as Travelife and EarthCheck, as well as B Corp Certification, and sustainability solution Ethy.

Regulations are getting tighter around sustainability messaging, so avoid language that can be open to interpretation. In May, the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled against an advert from Intrepid, which featured the tagline: “People and planet-friendly small group adventures since 1989”. The ASA said the wording didn’t take into account the effect of flying to a destination, so the operator removed the phrase from all global marketing, and reviewed the way it markets trips.

Cofman-Nicoresti welcomed the move, saying: “No one is always going to get it right all of the time, but the worst thing you can do is not do anything, out of fear of getting it wrong. We think it’s really good that [the ASA] is getting tighter on this because there are people out there who will be genuinely greenwashing, and no one in our industry wants that.”