Back to basics: sustainable travel
Travel that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment, and host communities.
UNWTO
What does that mean in practical terms?
Traveling & the environment
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- By replacing short journeys with trains instead of planes to reduce carbon emissions (in fact, our data shows that 1kg of C02 emitted by a train journey is equivalent to 22kg of C02 emitted by a flight journey). That's actually become a legal requirement in countries like France recently, with the UK and Germany soon to follow suit.
- Through carbon offsetting initiatives that have a positive impact on the environment and local communities. We're proud of our carbon offsetting projects at TravelPerk—check them out here!
- With travel industry players making decisive moves in the right direction. RyanAir, for example, has pledged to dispose of all single-use plastics in the next 5 years. InterContinental Hotels Group and Marriott International are completely phasing out single-use plastic toiletries bottles.
- With airlines looking for alternate sources of energy. Qantas, for example, has conducted pan-Pacific flights using a 10% biofuel blend as an alternative to the fossil fuels that are currently commonplace.
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Social & economic dimension of sustainable travel