Tui’s director of group sustainable development has spoken of her pride after Tui UK and Ireland was named the first UK travel firm to be fully certified by the international sustainability system for tour operators and travel agencies.
Travelife is designed to help tour operators and travel agencies “operate in a socially and environmentally friendly manner”.
Under the system, companies move from stage one, where they are described as being “engaged”, to stage two, when they are listed as “partners”, and then to stage three, where they become “certified”.
This last level requires businesses to provide evidence of practices and data on sustainability performance on both products and operations.
Tui UK and Ireland began the certification process at the beginning of the year before being given its award confirmation.
As part of the process, the company underwent interviews and evidence submissions to an auditor, which assessed the ways in which Tui UK and Ireland works with partners, suppliers and excursions.
It also had to provide evidence on the internal processes of the company and its UK-wide operations.
Speaking to TTG, Jane Ashton, director of group sustainable development for Tui Travel, said: “Any award is an honour, but I’m particularly pleased about this because it is such a rigorous process – it was a real mammoth undertaking to provide this evidence.
“This certification covers every imaginable aspect – there are 260 categories we had to provide evidence for, from how segregate and recycle our waste to the transfer companies we use.
“This is a huge achievement and something we wouldn’t have been able to achieve if we hadn’t been putting everything in place for a number of years – this has been embraced by the management in every single department.”
The Travelife system is supported by Abta and links to Abta’s Better Places Programme, a scheme that offers tools and guidance designed for members to help develop their own sustainability strategies.
Nikki White, Abta’s head of destinations and sustainability, stressed how “incredibly tough” the certification process was.
“It is designed to assess how ingrained a sustainability approach is within travel businesses,” she said.
The award was presented on Wednesday at WTM, by the secretary general of UNWTO.
