‘Travel has no choice but to get on the front foot when it comes to the climate crisis’
Daniel PearceThe travel industry needs to step up its response to the climate emergency by working together more closely to find solutions; TTG Media CEO Daniel Pearce headed to the Greece National Tourist Office’s first Sustainable Travel "Agora" in Crete this week to find out where this can be achieved – and how.
When it comes to the industry’s approach to sustainable tourism, is the glass full or half empty? Is the industry making great strides? Are countless companies now putting their own climate action plans in place? Or is travel woefully behind?
As ever with this topic, the answers are far from black and white. But a positive approach was fiercely examined and debated at the Greece National Tourist Board’s first sustainable travel "Agora" in Crete this week, hosted in partnership with and easyJet, to which I was privileged to be invited along with 25 other industry stakeholders.
Action points – personal and corporate – abounded at the end of the conference. And they need to.
The Ancient Greeks called their central marketplace and forum their Agora – and this Agora was certainly a place for hard-talking this week, held at Grecotel’s Creta Palace resort on the north coast of the Greek island.
Opening the event, sustainability consultant and journalist Juliet Kinsman highlighted how travel businesses needed to talk more about the “climate emergency” and less about the “climate debate”.
As we come to the end of the northern hemisphere’s hottest summer on record – one where destinations such as Athens have literally been forced to close to tourists due to the heat – it was difficult to argue otherwise.
When TTG surveyed travel businesses for Fairer Travel Week in July, we found one in two had a clear climate action plan in place to tackle goals. TTG Media announced its own climate action plan in April. Half the industry might sound impressive, but that also suggests the other half is yet to really make a move on sustainability.
So what’s stopping them? The fact two-fifths of travel leaders told us as part of the same research they were “still focused on saving their businesses after the pandemic” may provide a clue.
Further barriers discussed at the Agora included:
- Short-term thinking – too many businesses are being run by stakeholders who won’t be around in 2030, much less in 2050 when the government’s net-zero target is supposed to be achieved;
- Capital investment in travel businesses usually requires a quick return, stymying efforts to lay long-term groundwork for the future;
- The lack of a common language and standard terminology for sustainable tourism discussion, both for raising the issue within the industry and with consumers;
- Poor communication around the topic, including a lack of strong communication from those travel businesses genuinely showcasing best practice, and over-communication from those using greenwashing as a marketing hook;
- The challenges around developing and implementing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and other clean energy options, with the pace of change not happening fast enough;
- A lack of genuine demand from consumers to travel sustainably, with countless surveys suggesting the majority are not prepared to pay more for more sustainable travel options
The list, sadly, goes on.
But the industry needs to be firmly on the front foot here, despite the barriers, and this was widely discussed at the Agora.
How much of the talk can be turned to action? How can the gap between intentions and solutions be reduced? And how can travel businesses be held truly accountable for their promises around sustainable travel?
Two examples laid on the table at the Agora were the social pressure brought to bear by drink-drive campaigning in the 1970s and 1980s, and the more recent switch away from free plastic bags in supermarkets.
Both have played a major role in driving a change in consumer behaviour – yet both have been "top down" movements, which required government action to make the change permanent.
Agents on the frontline
While it would be more effective for travel to drive its own change, rather than having to take up measures forced on the industry, can it be trusted to change?
This is where forward-thinking travel agents can be part of the change. TTG’s own Sustainable Travel Heroes and Sustainable Travel Ambassadors programmes were cited by attendees at the Agora as among the building blocks of a firm trade response, with agents on the frontline of communicating travel's response to the climate crisis to consumers.
As Juliet Kinsman said: “It is better to light a candle in the darkness, rather than lie in the dark cursing the darkness."
Many candles were lit at the GNTO’s first Sustainable Travel Agora. Let it not be the last.
Dan Pearce is CEO of TTG Media.
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