Sustainability measures must not 'reduce the fun' of holidays

That was the consensus among delegates at the Adventure Travel Networking conference last week.

Speaking on a panel about responsible tourism, Sunday Times’ chief travel writer Chris Haslam said: “Holidays should be fun. Compromising on comfort – that’s not as much fun. As soon as you start ramming facts down people’s throats they turn off.”

Explore managing director Michael Edwards advised businesses to achieve this "by example, not by coercion". “Make incremental changes that are subtle but that might help the customer to make a comparison with what they have experienced elsewhere," he said. "The customer will work it out for themselves.”

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Clare Copeman, founder of UK specialist Adventure Tours UK, agreed sustainability was not yet at the forefront of customers’ minds. “Our clients are not going out and looking for responsible and sustainable experiences,” she said. “But when we explain why we’re working with local caterers and why we’re giving them reusable water bottles then they get it, and it adds to the experience.”

Macs Adventure described how it changed the itinerary on one particular tour to add a second night in an off-grid mountain lodge, instead of a hotel, specifically to improve the customer experience.

“Clients said they’d wished they’d spent more time there, so we changed the trip to spend two nights instead of one. This naturally reduced the trip’s carbon footprint, but it was all driven by customer feedback,” explained product team lead Fiona Marshall.