How these inspiring agents have become champions for change
Madeleine BarberLast year we built a community of TTG Sustainable Travel Ambassadors dedicated to building a Smarter, Better, Fairer travel industry. Find out what they’ve achieved with their newfound knowledge.
The Class of 2023 TTG Sustainable Travel Ambassadors may have “graduated” from their responsible tourism training programme, but they’re not resting on their laurels. Our sustainability-savvy agents are championing selling responsible travel within their own agencies, at industry events and by teaming up with sustainability stalwarts such as World Animal Protection to educate their peers on the importance of understanding the ins and outs of responsible tourism.
Our TTG Sustainable Travel Heroes – Avis, G Touring, Hurtigruten, Iberostar, Intrepid and the Greek National Tourism Organisation – alongside the likes of Responsibletravel.com and consultancy TerraVerde Sustainability have been supporting them with expert advice, invaluable resources and marketing spend to help them magnify their reach. As a result, our first intake of TTG Sustainable Travel Ambassadors have become reliable role models.
ACCOLADES ASSEMBLE
TravelTime World director Ashley Quint, for example, was named ESG Champion of the Year 2023 by The Advantage Travel Partnership last month. He was praised for driving TravelTime World towards B Corp status (which they haven’t quite achieved yet, but watch this space), his participation on stage at Abta’s Carbon Literacy Day in September, and contribution to a roundtable on animal welfare with Abta chief executive Mark Tanzer, as well as the agency’s It’s Easy Being Green travel guide for clients.
“I felt I had a credible narrative and a good story to tell,” Quint says. “I was pleased I won it because we’ve put a lot of effort into [becoming a responsible business] over the past nine months of our sustainability journey.”
As part of the TTG Sustainable Travel Heroes programme, the trainee Ambassadors were asked to complete a number of tasks, which included writing an animal welfare policy and researching the most sustainable suppliers across the cruise, touring and accommodation sectors.
“I’ve since built upon the homework,” explains Quint, adding: “We’ve launched a database on our website of ethical tour operators and I wrote a whole journal on sustainable travel, which I will now do quarterly.”
The director will be making a big marketing splash in local Hertfordshire media this month to celebrate his impressive achievements.
Elsewhere, in Blackpool, Travel Village Group’s marketing executive and sustainability ambassador Jenny Higgins has used her knowledge of responsible tourism practices and suppliers’ sustainability credentials to host webinars for her team and generate bespoke marketing assets promoting sustainable holidays. She’s also created a new digital system, providing access to tour operators’ sustainability credentials and her own guidelines on travelling responsibly and animal welfare for the group’s front-line sellers to reference when speaking to clients.
“We’ve hosted these webinars both with head office and sales staff to introduce the basics of sustainability and how we can use small steps to create a big impact,” she says. “We’ve also co-hosted local beach cleans, with a few members of staff inspired to do their own local park/beach clean ups, as well as to promote and switch-sell their customers to more sustainable choices.”
STRIVING FOR SUSTAINABILITY
Julie Breckon, another Class of 2023 TTG Sustainable Travel Ambassador, has rebranded her business from Worldwide Explorer Travel Holidays to Earthwise Travel to reflect her new focus on responsible tourism. To mark her brand’s shift, Julie has committed to making a donation to one of five environmental conservation and social welfare charities – Wild and Free Rehabilitation and Release, The Future Forest Company, Lendwithcare, Ecologi and Mossy Earth – with every booking.
“Clients can now know their travel experiences will contribute positively to the planet and its inhabitants,” she says. Breckon has been named a finalist in the Sustainable Changemaker category at the Sustainable Wedding Awards based on the changes she’s made this year when providing destination weddings and honeymoons, and was one of four Ambassadors to work with sustainable travel consultant Rebecca Woolford of Kiwano Travel on a webinar dedicated to understanding the issues with captive marine life attractions.
Breckon was joined on the panel by fellow Ambassadors Marie Rowe (Travel Counsellors), Annika Nickson (Nickson Travel) and Rachel Tredwell (Tredwell Travel), as well as World Animal Protection’s Katheryn Wise. The panel advised on how to respond to common justifications for captive dolphin attractions (see box, below) and which travel brands are doing well, or could do better, when it comes to protecting marine wildlife.
The Ambassadors shared personal stories emphasising there’s no shame in knowledge gaps, explaining “you don’t know what you don’t know”, or in failing to recognise greenwashing when you’re starting out on your sustainability journey. They explained doing your research, being prepared for conversations with clients and striving to be one step ahead is the way forward when aiming to champion selling sustainable travel.
WANT TO BECOME AN AMBASSADOR?
Now you can follow in these agents’ footsteps! Look out for the 2024 TTG Sustainable Travel Heroes Ambassador programme launching in February.
JOIN THE MISSION
Katheryn Wise, wildlife campaigns manager at World Animal Protection, joined a webinar with the Ambassadors to respond to justifications for captive dolphin attractions:
“It’s educational for everyone” – Dolphin performances are circus tricks. You’re not seeing them in their natural habitat, practising natural behaviours.
“Investments are made in conservation and research” – Research shows less than 5-10% of zoos, aquariums and dolphinariums have substantial conservation programmes and in those, the amount spent on conservation is often less than 1%. Plus, 80% of the dolphins in these attractions are bottlenose dolphins; not an endangered species.
“The dolphins enjoy it – they are smiling!” – This is one of nature’s greatest deceptions – it’s just the shape of their jawline. They’re performing for fish, with some parks withholding food before performances.
“Animal welfare is the park’s top priority” – It’s all about the visitors. The chlorine and lack of apparatus in the pools is so visitors can see the marine life clearly. Many of the most outspoken animal activists are former dolphin trainers.
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Madeleine Barber
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