Improve supplier performance: Join Travelife to improve sustainability in your supply chain
Welcome to Travelife, the supply chain solution for Tour Operators There is a growing demand for international tour operators to find ways to improve the environmental and social performance of their suppliers and reduce the impacts they have. The Travelife Sustainability System is a certification scheme that provides tour operators with an effective solution for monitoring and improving the sustainability performance of their hotel and accommodation suppliers. What is the Travelife Sustainability System? The Travelife Sustainability System is an international certification scheme that supports hotels and accommodations to improve the way they manage their sustainability impacts, helping international tour operators to improve the environmental and social performance of their supply chains. Travelife is a low cost certification scheme that has been developed by the travel industry for the industry. It is the only sustainable tourism scheme that works in partnership with tour operators and their suppliers to reduce costs and support the delivery of their corporate responsibility and sustainability objectives, with one audit per hotel that reduces the burden on both. Additionally, Travelife is the only system that has gained support by the European Parliament, as well as the European Travel Agents and Tour Operators Association (ECTAA) and a growing number of European trade associations such as ANVR in the Netherlands. Travelife is currently undergoing a review of its criteria, with a view to achieving recognition by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council in 2012. Our membership Our tour operator membership is international and includes smaller, independent companies such as Sunvil, Belleair and Britaly Holidays, as well as European operators such as Corendon Vliegvakanties and the Oad Group, all who recognise the value that Travelife brings to their operations. Our larger tour operator members include TUI Travel Plc, Thomas Cook Group, Kuoni (all three in multiple international source markets), Cosmos, Virgin Holidays and Transat (Canada). This demonstrates that no matter the size of the operation, the certification scheme works for any tour operator irrespective of their home country, source market or holiday type (beach, ski, adventure or otherwise) who wants to improve the sustainability performance of hotels and accommodations in their supply chain. 2 I Travelife
Benefits of tour operator membership Joining Travelife delivers a range of benefits, including: 1 // Increased Assurance 2 // Internationally recognised 3 // Low Cost, High Returns At the touch of a button, members can see how well their suppliers are performing and be assured that they are taking action to fulfil contractual requirements or business requirements. Tour operators can remotely monitor key suppliers based thousands of miles away through Travelife s online management tool that will keep them regularly informed about the progress of their contracted accommodation suppliers. Travelife has a growing reputation internationally as a respected sustainable tourism certification scheme. And as more international tour operators adopt Travelife and communicate its purpose to customers in multiple source markets, more holiday decisions will be based on whether or not a hotel or accommodation holds a Travelife certification award. Joining Travelife is very cost-effective, to ensure that both tour operators and their accommodations can collaborate and reduce their sustainability impacts for the benefit of thriving destinations. By adopting the Travelife Sustainability System, accommodations will be able to identify efficiencies that reduce their costs, as well as delivering positive benefits that support tour operators sustainability objectives. 3 I Travelife
Benefits of tour operator membership Joining Travelife delivers a range of benefits, including: 4 // Enhanced Supplier Relationships Tour operators find that by working with their suppliers to achieve Travelife awards, they often enhance their relationships. By working in collaboration, information can be shared about Travelife-awarded properties, reducing the need for multiple audits of shared properties. 5 // Meeting Customer Demand More and more holidaymakers are seeking holidays with an environmental rating, with increasing numbers saying they would be prepared to pay more for more sustainable holiday options (ABTA, 2011). By highlighting Travelife-awarded properties in brochures or on websites, our tour operator members are demonstrating they are responsible businesses who are committed to offering their customers a greater choice of sustainable accommodations. 6 // Winning Business through Travelife Collection Hotels achieving a Travelife award showcase their properties in the Travelife Collection, an online consumer website that provides information about awarded properties, helping customers to identify more sustainable holiday options. Once customers have made their hotel selection, they can click through to the tour operator s website to progress their holiday booking. For more information about the Travelife Collection, please visit www.travelifecollection.com 4 I Travelife
In your words What our international tour operator members say about Travelife We are convinced of the strong link between the long term success of our industry and the impacts of our holidays on the environment and communities. We strongly recommend that accommodation providers subscribe to Travelife which offers a cost-effective way to manage the sustainability of the business and to promote its achievements to a wide audience. Jane Ashton Head of Sustainable Development TUI Travel plc TRAVELIFE...OFFERS TOUR OPERATORS A LOW COST SOLUTION TO MANAGE SUSTAINABILITY Andy Cooper Director of Government and External Affairs, Thomas Cook Group plc Hotelplan is happy to promote Travelife because it s an international label and works with the same guidelines for hotels and resorts all over the world. Furthermore, Travelife is one of the few certification programmes to value social policy as highly as environmental management. Anja Dobes Coordinator Sustainability Hotelplan Suisse Hotelplan Travelife is an industry driven system which is a solution to a very important issue: taking care of local communities and the environment. Communicating Travelife results to our employees, our suppliers, and our customers helps us achieve our goal of fostering a sustainable supply chain. Matthias Leisinger Head of Corporate Responsibility Kuoni Travel Ltd A COST-EFFECTIVE WAY TO MANAGE THE SUSTAINABILITY OF THE BUSINESS Jane Ashton Head of Sustainable Development, TUI Travel plc We recognise the importance of supporting our supply chain in their management of sustainability issues. Travelife is an industryled scheme which offers tour operators a low cost solution to manage sustainability and offers customers an easy way to identify those businesses. We are pleased to feature these awards within our brochures and on our website. Andy Cooper Director of Government and External Affairs Thomas Cook Group plc 5 I Travelife
In your words What our international tour operator members say about Travelife TRAVELIFE PROVIDES AN EASY-TO-FOLLOW, STEP-BY-STEP APPROACH WHICH CAN BE ADOPTED BY ALL Noel Josephides Managing Director, Sunvil Holidays Being socially and ecologically responsible along our supply chain and throughout our operations is very important to Thomas Cook both in the source market and in the destinations. Travelife is a great opportunity to ensure sustainability within our supply chain and to support hoteliers in realising sustainable measures in an easy and economical way. Annette Höher Head of Innovation, Destination and Quality Management and Sustainability Thomas Cook AG For us it has been a logical step to join Travelife since this is a cost efficient and an effective tool for managing the supply chain of sustainable tourism businesses worldwide. Travelife will help our tour operators and travel agents to inform consumers on responsible holiday choices. Frank Oostdam ANVR: The Netherlands Association of Travel Agents and Tour Operators As the market leader in the Dutch travel industry, we are committed to ensuring our holiday destinations have a sustainable future. For this reason, we aim to deliver quality holidays which respect people and nature. Our aim is to improve the sales of sustainability certified accommodations to our guests. Travelife is our preferred partner in accomplishing our goals. Elise Allart Manager Sustainable Tourism TUI Nederland Sustainability is of paramount importance and it is the responsibility of everyone within the tourism industry operators and hoteliers alike to minimise negative impacts of their business practices. Travelife provides an easy-to-follow, step-by-step approach which can be adopted by all. Noel Josephides Managing Director Sunvil Holidays TRAVELIFE WILL HELP OUR TOUR OPERATORS AND TRAVEL AGENTS Frank Oostdam ANVR: The Netherlands Association of Travel Agents and Tour Operators 6 I Travelife
Thriving destinations In September 2010, an EU Eco-Innovation project named INTOUR was launched, designed to align the EU Eco-label for accommodations with the Travelife Sustainability System for hotels and accommodations. The existing Travelife sustainability criteria will be extended to other elements of a tourism package such as transport, excursions, attractions, encouraging an increase in the uptake of environmental management and labelling schemes throughout the supply chain. This will then be piloted in destinations such as Turkey, Italy and Austria, demonstrating that the supply chain approach brings together tour operators, hotels and their destinations to encourage the uptake of EU voluntary tools and ultimately, the delivery of environmental, social and economic improvement. This project is co-funded by the European Union within the Eco-Innovation initiative of the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP). 7 I Travelife
Joining Travelife get in touch today, to see how we can help your businesss Travelife offers both tour operators and their suppliers a low-cost solution that provides a good basis for sustainability management, as well as excellent valuefor-money. Tour operator membership is charged annually and based on the size and scope of the business. In return, members are invited to develop their relationship with the Travelife team as well as other international tour operator members, to ensure that they gain the most out of their membership. To find out more about joining Travelife as a tour operator member, please contact the Travelife team on info@travelife.org or +44 (0)20 3117 0591 8 I Travelife
T +44 (0)20 3117 0591 F +44 (0)20 3117 0581 E info@travelife.org Travelife 30 Park Street London SE1 9EQ United Kingdom Supported by The information provided in this leaflet does not necessarily reflect the official position of the EACI, the European Commission or other European institution. 9 I Travelife