As sustainability claims in travel come under increasing scrutiny, a deeper conversation is emerging across the industry. While environmental metrics and operational checklists have long dominated responsible tourism narratives, questions around ownership, governance, and where tourism value ultimately flows are beginning to take centre stage. In an interview with Ewan Cluckie, Chief Growth Officer at Tripseed, the Thailand-based travel company’s recent People and Planet First verification becomes less about recognition and more about structural change. For Cluckie, the verification reflects how a business is designed and governed, rather than how well it markets its sustainability credentials.
Why governance remains the industry’s blind spot
Cluckie argues that sustainability discussions in travel have traditionally focused on environmental management because those areas are more visible and easier to measure. Governance, ownership, and profit distribution, however, raise more uncomfortable questions around power, control, and accountability. In destinations such as Thailand, these issues are compounded by structural risks including illegal nominee shareholder arrangements and widespread tax avoidance. According to Cluckie, such practices allow companies to appear locally rooted while extracting value offshore, often without scrutiny from mainstream sustainability frameworks. Without examining how businesses are owned and governed, sustainability risks becoming performative rather than transformative.
Local ownership as accountability, not branding
Tripseed’s majority women-owned and locally owned structure plays a central role in how it approaches responsible tourism. Cluckie explains that local ownership means experiencing the long-term consequences of tourism practices directly, from economic leakage to environmental and reputational damage. Being majority women-owned has also shaped leadership culture and commercial priorities, particularly around pay equity, inclusion, and supplier relationships. Cluckie notes that lived experience matters, pointing to the double discrimination Thai women often face in regional tourism businesses. That reality, he says, has directly influenced how Tripseed structures itself and the standards it expects from partners.
Making tourism economics visible
One of Tripseed’s most distinctive initiatives is its Economic Distribution Disclosure Initiative, which openly maps how tourism revenue flows within destinations. Reactions have been mixed. Some partners have welcomed the transparency as a way to strengthen accountability, while others have found it uncomfortable when the data exposes how little revenue often remains locally. For Cluckie, that discomfort is necessary. Without honest visibility into economic flows, he argues, it is impossible to have meaningful conversations about reform or long-term impact.
Demand for deeper verification is growing, particularly among international tour operators and travel advisors increasingly aware of reputational risk. Cluckie says conversations are shifting away from surface-level certifications toward questions about ownership structures, governance, and whether commitments will hold under commercial pressure. This shift is being reinforced by evolving regulatory frameworks in Europe, including the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and proposed Green Claims rules, which are raising expectations around the accuracy and verifiability of sustainability claims across travel supply chains.
Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond
Cluckie expects responsible tourism in Southeast Asia to diverge rather than converge. On one side will be businesses focused on volume and price competition, often supported by surface-level sustainability messaging. On the other will be a smaller but growing group embedding responsibility into ownership, governance, tax practice, and economic contribution. Social enterprises, he believes, will not replace conventional tourism businesses but can play a critical role in demonstrating commercially viable alternatives. For Tripseed, being among the first travel companies in Asia to achieve People and Planet First verification is intended as a signal that structurally responsible models are not only possible, but increasingly necessary as the industry moves toward 2026.
