Make Holidays Greener Month kicks off
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
Travel companies and tourism boards have been showing their support for sustainable holidays with the launch of Make Holidays Greener Month.
The consumer awareness campaign by the Travel Foundation launched today with the Maltese island of Gozo as its sponsor. The island’s sponsorship follows its new eco-Gozo initiative, which aims to make the island fully sustainable environmentally, socially and economically by 2020.
Tour operators have also been getting involved with a variety of initiatives throughout the month as part of their on-going sustainable projects.
InsideJapan has launched an ‘Eco-Card’ that it will hand out to customers encouraging them to stay green on holiday. Printed on recycled card with environmentally-friendly ink, the cards are written in English and Japanese and encourage hotel and ryokan staff to not change towels and sheets to save energy.
The company is also still involved with rebuilding the town of Ishinomaki after it was destroyed by the tsunami last year, with fund-raising and volunteering holidays available.
“We want our holidays to have an impact on our customers, not on Japan; and this thought is at the centre of our business. For example all of our trips include family-run traditional accommodation and 99% of journeys are on public transport,” added Ruth Hubbard, sustainable tourism manager at InsideJapan. “All InsideJapan Tours’ customers are given reusable chopsticks to help cut down on the 24 billion pairs of disposable chopsticks that Japan gets through each year”.
Meanwhile, Corsican Places has announced its charter flights will be carbon neutral throughout July by balancing its carbon use with fund-raising efforts for a new reforestation project. Money collected from customers, staff, directors and a donation from Titan Airways will go towards the tree-planting initiative in South Corsica. It has also launched a leaflet with sustainable travelling tips for customers, which will be given to them in their ticket wallet pre-travel.