Prince Harry wants you to think a bit harder about whether your next vacation abroad risks harming the planet.
He’s setting up a sustainable tourism initiative called Travalyst, which aims to support local people, protect wildlife, tackle climate change and environmental damage, and alleviate over-tourism. It’s a tall order but Visa, TripAdvisor, Booking.com, Skyscanner and Ctrip are buying into the project.
“It is critically important to accelerate the adoption of sustainable practices worldwide,” the Duke of Sussex said in a statement Tuesday. “Bringing companies, consumers and communities together is our best chance to protect destinations and ecosystems for future generations.”
The world is getting smaller for today’s traveler -- a generation ago, visiting Madagascar or trekking along the Kyrgyzstan border would have been almost unthinkable. The number of trips taken annually by people has more than doubled since 2000, according to the World Bank. Tourists visiting countries in emerging markets will make up 57 per cent of all international trips in 10 years, reaching a billion annually, according to the World Tourism Organization.
But there are early signs that today’s consumer is growing aware that the act of flying across oceans isn’t necessarily ideal for the environment. Over the last 12 months, 10 million travelers using Skyscanner selected the lowest CO2 emission flight option.
And companies are beginning to embrace the idea, too. Last week, Marriott International Inc. said it would eliminate all single-use toiletry bottles from its properties worldwide.
The global sustainable tourism market is predicted to grow by US$340 billion, or 10 per cent, within the next four years, according to market researcher TechNavio.
Hard details of the project weren’t immediately available. Harry may give more details at a speech Tuesday morning in Amsterdam.
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