Industry urged to make flight-free travel easier to book

Cat Jones, CEO and founder of “slow travel” start-up Byway, said consumers should be given more choice in how they travel, at least for short-haul trips.

Speaking at the TTG Luxury Travel Summit this week, Jones said Byway is keen to share its technology – which aggregates train, bus, boat and ferry product – with other travel brands, to facilitate more slow travel.

She admitted this kind of travel was not easy to design or sell, but said living through Covid had built consumer interest in supporting local businesses and getting off the beaten path to an all-time high.

During a panel discussion about sustainability, Nico Nicholas, founder of carbon offsetting specialist Trees4Travel, agreed that switching to rail can and should be encouraged on appropriate journeys, but pointed out that communities in destinations such as the Caribbean depend upon visitors brought by air.

“It’s easy to point the finger at aircraft and cruise ships, yet power generation and deforestation are each responsible for 20% of the world’s carbon emissions,” he argued. His company is currently planting trees in deforested areas of Haiti, and investing in renewable energy sources in the Bahamas to help the region work towards energy self-sufficiency.

Jones advised any travel firm keen to understand and improve their environmental and social impact to start by taking B Corp’s free B Impact Assessment. “It’s so worth doing if you care about the impact of your operations and products,” she said.