Europe's Leading Travel Group Pushes for Eco Holidays

TUI Travel, whom most people admit to be Europe's leading travel group, recently made it public news that it has plans to green up the holiday experiences of its customers, thanks to new sustainability targets that aim to push for environmentally friendly hotels and fuel-efficient planes.

Just for the record, TUI Travel (i.e. a sector of TUI AG) presently operates in about 180 countries and caters to the relaxation needs of roughly 30 million people, so their deciding to go green is likely to yield some much-needed benefits from an environmental standpoint.

Apparently, their Sustainable Holidays Plan 2012-2014 is meant to turn this group into a world leader in terms of green traveling, something which is to be achieved by promoting green-oriented hotels and fuel-efficient airlines.

“Our vision is to make travel experiences special whilst minimizing environmental impact, respecting culture and people, and bringing economic benefit to communities,” explains TUI Travel's chief executive, Peter Long.

Business Green informs us that, under the new standards TUI Travel has in view, this travel group is to see that customers trying to decide where to spend their holidays can choose from more than 3,000 hotels whose agenda classifies them as sustainable businesses.

Moreover, partnerships are to be closed with roughly five million holiday makers who can provide TUI's customers with green-oriented resorts and free-time activities.

As they put it, “We will deliver 10 million 'greener and fairer' holidays,” and, “We will operate Europe's most fuel-efficient airlines and save more than 20,000 tonnes of carbon from our ground operations.”

Rumor has it that this travel group decided to turn towards sustainable development with such eagerness after similar measures implemented in the past ended up saving them about ₤21million, and after quite a lot of people admitted that they would much rather opt for eco holidays than for traditional ones, as long as this choice was made available to them.

“I am in no doubt that this sustainability plan will help future-proof our own business, as well as the environment and destination communities on which our industry depends,” says Deputy Chief Executive Johan Lundgren.