EU Commission High Level Conference on Sustainable Tourism

Valetta, Malta, 8 May 2017

Challenges and Opportunities of Sustainable Tourism: – ABTA’s role supporting Tour Operator members

and their supply chains through the Travelife Certification Scheme for Hotels and Accommodation

Dr Catherine Wilson,

Technical Manager, Travelife Certification Services, ABTA, London

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Agenda • Background on ABTA • Supply chain sustainability challenges for our Tour Operator members • ABTA’s solution for managing supply chain sustainability challenges • Travelife Certification Scheme – introduction • Travelife – case studies of opportunities to increase positive sustainability impact • Conclusions and summary

ABTA is the UK’s largest travel association

Trusted UK brand for over 65 years

ABTA’s vision is to build: – Confidence for companies to trade

and invest – Confidence for consumers to book – Confidence that the industry is

building a sustainable future

ABTA and our Members: Confidence at the heart of travel

ENVIRONMENT Water consumption,

waste, energy, wildlife &

biodiversity. animal welfare

SOCIAL Local cultures, human rights, social values, community, accessibility

ECONOMIC Tourist spend into the local

economy, economic

development

Overseas Tour Operator package holidays – sustainability impacts within the supply chain

Overseas Tour Operator package holidays – … examples of negative media coverage

Overseas Tour Operator package holidays – Growing consumer trends for greener holidays

• ABTA Travel Trends 2017 Research Report Sustainable tourism among top 10 trends for 2017 • Booking.com survey research results Over 1/3 of travellers are planning to choose more eco-friendly travel options than they did in 2016 and nearly 2 in 5 interested in eco-tour travel experiences

THE SUPPLY CHAIN CHALLENGE

How has ABTA and its Tour Operator members united and influenced

the global supply chain around diverse sustainability challenges?

Delivering solutions: In partnership with Tour Operator Members

i. Focus on components of the holiday itself with the most influence: e.g.

accommodation

ii. Use the weight of visitor numbers to influence the supply chain by building sustainability standards into the contracting process

iii. Provide the supply chain with practical tools to implement best practice and to reduce negative sustainability impacts

Travelife for Hotels & Accommodation: Introduction

• Travelife is an global certification scheme

• Supports global hotels to improve their negative environmental, social & economic impacts cost-effectively

• Successful hotels that meet the Travelife standard/criteria are formally recognised with Gold certification that recognise their achievements

• Launched in 2007, after 3 year project, involving 60+ participants and co-financed by the EU Commission

• Global Sustainable Tourism Council recognised scheme (2012)

• Over 15 million global holidaymakers stay in Travelife certified hotels

Travelife’s extensive network of tour operator Members

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• Over 1,400 Members in 57

countries worldwide, including: – Spain: 454 – Greece: 225 – Turkey: 163

• 800 audits in the last 12 months

• +15 million holidaymakers stay in Travelife certified hotels

Travelife Hotels & Accommodation: Members

The Travelife Standard for Hotels & Accommodation: Sustainability themes and criteria Travelife’s certification requirements (criteria) which hotels have to meet to be certified are organised under 4 sustainability themes

Management Environment Community Supply Chain

Business policies Energy Employee welfare Suppliers

Legislation Water Human rights Guests

Communicating progress Waste Local community

Staff and budget Harmful substances

Wildlife

Travelife for Hotels & Accommodation: process

• Travelife has a very simple certification process to support Members • Support material is provided to help hotels - in 8 languages • Audits are 3rd party and carried out by our trained & qualified Travelife Auditors

Travelife Hotels & Accommodation: Certification PR Once audited, verified and awarded a Gold certification, hotel

Members benefit from increased publicity opportunities

• award plaque to display in property

• using certification mark in hotel marketing, incl. brochures, website

• Award promoted through PR and social media

• profile page on Travelife Collection

Travelife Hotels & Accommodation: Gold Certification PR

Travelife Gold awarded hotels also benefit from increased marketing opportunities through our partners

© Travelife 2015

• Promotion through online travel agents

• Tour operator holiday brochures

Travelife opportunity: encouraging more hotels to take part in Travelife through business case cost savings Case study: Sentido Perissa, Cyprus – first year savings

• Travelife audit made improvement recommendations • €150.000 savings per year could be made with quick wins, such as:

– Flow restrictors in shower heads & repair of toilet leaks – Improved towel reuse programme – Grounds irrigated early morning – Backwashing of pool filters improved

• Cost of implementation = €8,000 • Actual savings realised = €78,000 in first year • Return on investment = 900%

Travelife opportunity example: audit data insights

• Research aim: – to identify trending areas of sustainability non-compliance against the Travelife Checklist for

Travelife Hotels in Destination X to make sustainability supply chain and destination improvements

• Methodology: – Quantitative analysis of audit data collected Nov 2014 - Dec 2015, 30 Travelife audits (4/5* hotels) – Qualitative analysis of interviews with lead auditor

• General findings identifying strengths & areas for improvement/support: – Poor sustainable water management practices – national water legislation is weak – Working conditions included strengths that the Minimum Wage was respected, but overtime was

uncontrolled, accommodation is acceptable but in most cases no hot water – In terms of community interactions – an area identified for improvement included reducing beach

hassle in beach resorts

• Travelife was born out of growing public demand for sustainable tourism • Travelife is the only sustainability certification scheme which works in

partnership with global tour operators and hotel chains • The Tool drives significant positive sustainability impact through the supply

chain during the Tour Operator contracting process • With future growth in international travel, future ABTA opportunities

include: – scaling up the solution globally for positive sustainability impact – adapting the standard to different accommodation types, such as B&B’s, chain hotels – and, leveraging on audit data analysis to identify destination-specific issues for further

destination based guidance, tools and advocacy work to improve non-compliances

Conclusions & summary

THANK YOU! www.travelife.org/Hotel @TravelifeCollection @TravelifeHotels

Contact: Dr Catherine Wilson, Technical Manager, ABTA Email: Catherine@travelife.org Twitter: cw_env_i

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