Improve
supplier
performance:
Join Travelife to
improve sustainability
in your supply chain
What is the Travelife Sustainability System?
The Travelife Sustainability System is an internationalcertification 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
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.
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
Welcome
to Travelife, the supply chain solution for Tour Operators
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.
Benefits
of tour operator membership
2
//
Internationally recognised
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.
1
//
Increased Assurance
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.
3
//
Low Cost, High Returns
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.
Benefits
of tour operator membership
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
“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
“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
In your words
What our international tour operator members say about Travelife
“A
COST-EFFECTIVE
WAY TO MANAGE
THE SUSTAINABILITY OF THE BUSINESS”
“TRAVELIFE...
OFFERS TOUR
OPERATORS A LOW COST SOLUTION
TO MANAGE SUSTAINABILITY”
“We recognise the importance of supporting our supply chain in their management of sustainability issues. Travelife is an industry-led 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
Jane Ashton Head of Sustainable Development, TUI Travel plc
In your words
What our international tour operator members say about Travelife
“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
“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
“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
“TRAVELIFE WILL
HELP OUR TOUR
OPERATORS
AND TRAVEL AGENTS ”
“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
Frank Oostdam ANVR: The Netherlands Association
of Travel Agents and Tour Operators
“TRAVELIFE PROVIDES AN
EASY-TO-FOLLOW,
STEP-BY-STEP APPROACH
WHICH CAN BE ADOPTED BY ALL”
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).
Travelife offers both tour operators and their suppliers a
low-cost solution that provides a good basis for
sustainability management, as well as excellent
value-for-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
or
+44 (0)20 3117 0591
Travelife 30 Park Street London SE1 9EQ United Kingdom T +44 (0)20 3117 0591 F +44 (0)20 3117 0581 E [email protected] www.travelife.org Supported by
