The Duke of Sussex launches new global sustainable travel initiative, ‘Travalyst’
Led by His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex (aka Prince Harry) and
co-founded with leading travel industry service providers Booking.com,
Ctrip, Skyscanner, TripAdvisor and
Visa,
Travalyst has been created to mobilize the travel
industry as a catalyst for good, aiming to transform the future of travel for
everyone.
This first-of-its-kind partnership is dedicated to exploring and promoting
solutions that will make travel more sustainable, by bringing together global
businesses at the center of connecting customers and operators in the travel
market to utilize their unique position to educate, raise awareness and promote
positive change.
“The commitment from these different brands to work together and help build a
global network of like-minded social entrepreneurs, NGOs and policymakers is
truly inspiring. Collaboration is the only path forward if we want to create a
real paradigm shift in travel,” said Gillian Tans, Chairwoman of
Booking.com. “We want to protect the destinations we all love and guarantee that
they are happy and healthy for generations to come, but we can’t do it on our
own. Even though we don’t have all the answers yet, we are determined to find
them together.”
Working with companies, consumers and communities, Travalyst will initially
explore and promote solutions that help drive sustainable practices and consumer
choices in areas including supporting local people, protecting wildlife,
tackling climate change and environmental
damage,
and alleviating
overtourism.
The potential for impact
As more people travel, the impact on local communities and the environment
increases; however, the number of opportunities to do good with each trip taken
increases, too: Last year, the number of international trips taken globally each
year reached 1.4 billion, two years faster than original projections, according
to the World Tourism
Organization;
and the World Travel and Tourism
Council
estimates that travel and tourism added $8.8 trillion to the global economy in
2018.
Travalyst intends to capitalize on the strength and breadth of the global travel
market, foster increased collaboration across the industry, and stimulate and
support new solutions and initiatives in sustainable travel. The founding
partners want to spark a movement of like-minded companies, organizations, NGOs,
entrepreneurs and other changemakers to transform the future of travel into a
more sustainable one.
“Travel is a powerful means of bringing us closer — to share the beauty of our
countries and our myriad cultures, to find our common humanity,” said Jane
Sun, CEO of
Ctrip,
China’s largest online travel agency. “But with travel comes the duty to protect
our fragile planet — that’s why we are working with the brightest minds to
ensure that generations to come can follow in our footsteps sustainably, and the
world and its people can grow together.”
Consumer trends show increasing demand for positive impacts
There is a growing consumer demand for have easy and transparent access to a
wider range of options to travel more sustainably. Alongside other recent
initiatives from Kind
Traveler,
KimKim
and
KLM
aimed at changing travel for the better, Travalyst wants to help companies meet
that demand, as well as use this platform to engage consumers about the
importance of sustainable practices. This partnership will also prioritize
working with local communities, engaging social entrepreneurs and promoting best
practice.
“Enabling global travel and commerce through digital
payments
is one of many ways Visa connects and empowers individuals, businesses and
economies every day,” said Visa Chairman and CEO Al Kelly. “We are dedicated
to doing so in a way that supports our commitment to sustainability. We are
proud to be part of this initiative to support long-term economic growth through
tourism.”
According to recent polling, more than half of all travelers say they are more
determined to make more sustainable travel choices this year than they were last
year — but many do not know how. Barriers include a lack of knowledge, perceived
extra costs and not enough availability or appealing options when trying to put
this into practice. That being said, impact on the local community and
environment is a primary consideration for many travelers globally.
- 71 percent of global travellers told Booking.com that they think travel companies should offer more sustainable travel choices, and 68 percent of people said it was important the money they spent on travel went back into local communities.
- Over the last 12 months, 10 million travellers using Skyscanner selected the lowest CO2-emission flight option.
- 75 percent of Ctrip’s partners are committed to Ctrip’s 4R initiatives: to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle resources and Regenerate lives in the travel ecosystem
- The global sustainable tourism market is predicted to grow by $340 billion, 10 percent, within the next four years.
HRH The Duke of Sussex said: “Travel has the unparalleled power to open people’s
minds to different cultures, new experiences and to have a profound appreciation
for what our world has to offer. As tourism inevitably grows, it is critically
important to accelerate the adoption of sustainable practices worldwide; and to
balance this growth with the needs of the environment and the local population.
Bringing companies, consumers and communities together is our best chance to
protect destinations and ecosystems for future generations.”
Unfortunately, Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle — both vocal
environmentalists — have been blasted by critics for their family’s frequent
travel by private jet. As he launched Travalyst in Amsterdam earlier this week,
the Duke said: “I’ve learned we
cannot dismiss the idea of trying to do something, just because we can’t do
everything. We can all do better — and while no one is perfect, we all have a
responsibility for our own individual impacts.”
During a Q&A after the launch, when asked about his use of private jets, he
said, “I spend 99 percent of my life traveling the world by commercial;
occasionally, there needs to be an opportunity, based on a unique circumstance,
to ensure that my family are safe.”
CNN
reported
earlier this week that as a result of the scrutiny, the royal couple plan to
travel commercial to Africa later this month.
Google’s ‘green’ maps feature encourages low-carbon transport options
Image credit: Google
Meanwhile, a new feature in Google Maps enables users to add last-mile
ridesharing and biking options to their travel plans. The feature will work
automatically, whenever a user searches for a destination and clicks
“directions.”
Below the usual walking, biking, public transit and driving options, a menu of
“mixed-mode” options will pop up, which will include biking or ride-sharing. For
each trip, the lowest-carbon mode or combination of modes will be marked
“green.” As before when using Google Maps, the “mixed mode” options will tell
users how long their total journey is likely to take, along with the estimated
cost.
“Google Maps has always helped you get from place to place, whether you’re
driving, walking, biking or taking public transit,” Google’s product manager for
maps, Vishal Dutta, explained in a blog
post.
“And we know that transit journeys can be complex–often involving multiple modes
of transportation to help you get around town. Today, we’re making it easy to
pair transit directions with biking and ridesharing options so you can travel
that first or last mile with ease.”
Launched this week in the US, Google says transit directions paired with biking
and ridesharing will start rolling out in the coming weeks on Android and iOS in
30 countries around the globe, with more coming soon.
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Sustainable Brands Staff
Published Sep 6, 2019 2pm EDT / 11am PDT / 7pm BST / 8pm CEST