Our booking data shows that customers are increasingly seeking all-inclusive options, while at the same time food waste continues to be a challenge for hotels, so we’ve placed increased focus on how we can help tackle this issue. We launched a trial with Winnow technology in one of our most popular hotels in Tenerife to utilise the power of AI to identify and reduce food waste, by weighing the amount of food being wasted, and then creating reduction plans for kitchen teams. During this trial, our partner hotel reduced buffet waste by 58%, which had both a financial benefit as well as leading to a more sustainable operation. We’ve now turned our focus to sharing these results with hotels across our portfolio, to encourage as many partners as possible to adopt this technology, and as a result we’ve subsequently seen a hotel partner in Greece install the technology into their kitchen.

Why have you chosen to champion sustainability in 2025?

This isn’t new for us for this year, we’ve advocated for our destinations since we launched in 2019. When it comes to sustainability, it’s our mission to make a positive impact on the environment and local communities that make our holidays so special. We’re passionate about providing incredible value for money to our customers, and through our travel agent partners, whilst being a force for good, which is why we have the aspiration to make more sustainable holidays mainstream. We focus on three pillars that guide our journey: 

1. Create Better Holiday Choices – empowering customers with more sustainable choices to holiday better 
2. Keep Our Holidays Special – how we support the people and places that make our holidays so special
3. Transform Travel for Everyone – making positive change across our industry
   

In November, I was pleased to be participate in the first dedicated tourism day at COP 29 in Baku, and from discussions with industry-leaders it became clear that the time for action is now. Whilst we’ve always been committed to sustainability, we know we can do more to support the wider industry in moving forward quickly, which is a key priority for us in 2025.

What marketing advice or selling tips do you have for travel agents looking to sell more responsible travel?

We know in the past, it’s been difficult for travel agents and customers to identify credible hotel options. So, at easyJet holidays, we believe that internationally recognised certification is a valuable tool in choosing hotels that are making positive progress. Our Certified Sustainable range consists of thousands of hotels that have achieved a certification which meets the holistic standards of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, meaning they have been assessed on their environmental, socioeconomic and cultural impacts. These hotels are easily identifiable for travel agent partners on our trade portal, and also achieve high customer satisfaction ratings, so you can be confident that customers will have a brilliant experience.

To drive significant progress towards making more sustainable holidays mainstream, we need to encourage change across the industry, and that means taking the existing tourism model that millions of people enjoy each year, and making incremental changes, such as offering our brilliant holidays at unbeatable prices to lesser-known destinations and signposting customers there, and rolling out an electric transfer trial in one of our most loved destinations. This will allow customers to enjoy the brilliant holidays they’ve always loved, whilst also having a positive impact on the environment and local communities.

An important part of this process is enabling customers to make better holiday choices, and our travel agent partners play key role in this, so it’s our ambition to support agents in identifying and communicating the more responsible options available. 

Finally, we’re always seeking out opportunities to engage and educate our brilliant travel agent partners around our sustainability strategy. We were delighted to be headline sponsors of last year’s TTG Fairer Travel Festival, hosting training sessions and joining panel events to equip travel agents with the knowledge they need to help us achieve our ambitions. We’re really looking forward to this year’s festival!

As part of our TTG Sustainable Travel Heroes initiative we’re seeking agent Ambassadors to champion promoting and selling responsible tourism. How are you planning on supporting these agents in their journey?

At easyJet holidays, we’re combining the experience of our dedicated ESG experts, our wider team, and our industry partners, to be confident that we have what it takes to support travel agents . We’re providing the tools to help identify better holiday choices, and guidance on how to avoid the less credible alternatives.

We’re also really excited about the opportunity of bringing together passionate travel agents to support us on our journey. As part of this, we look forward to working with the agents to gain valuable insight on what customers are looking for in mainstream travel, helping us to tailor our offering to ensure we’re providing brilliant holidays, whilst prioritising out ESG goals.

These TTG Sustainable Travel Ambassadors will have the opportunity to join a sustainability-focused Intrepid fam trip in 2025. What can they hope to experience and learn?

We’re so excited to showcase some of the brilliant collaboration taking place in our destinations, giving travel agent partners first-hand experience of how we’re working hard to have a more positive impact on the people and places that make our holidays so special. We know that there’s a broad range of customer needs and attitudes towards sustainable travel, so this fam trip is an opportunity to demonstrate that the projects we’re supporting are making positive changes without impacting the customer experience, or our unbeatable prices.