Online modules will help businesses develop and propel their sustainability strategies

ABTA, The Travel Association, has today launched ‘Better Places’ - an online programme which provides ABTA Members with a broad introduction to sustainability in tourism. This free resource demonstrates the business benefits of sustainability, as well as offering practical advice on how to set goals around sustainability, measure the success of these, and ultimately sell the benefits to consumers.

Hosted on the Member area of abta.com the step-by-step modules condense the vast amount of information on sustainability more generally, focusing on what is most relevant to travel businesses – whether they are at the very start of engaging with sustainability or have established sustainability plans that can be supported and developed further. 

‘Better Places’ consists of 5 key steps:

1. Learn about sustainability – this module is about breaking down the vast amounts of information and providing a guide to sustainability by making it relevant to agents and operators.
2. Create a plan  – this module is designed to help ABTA Members to plan and map out current activities, as well as to lay out their strategies for driving their business towards success.
3. Work with your suppliers – this module is focused on how travel businesses can engage key partners and get them to come on board with their sustainability approach. Suppliers are a key way for businesses to magnify their positive impact and give customers greater confidence.
4. Tell your customers – this is about how ABTA Members can use their progress to sell better holidays. This section makes it easy to integrate these messages into day to day sales dialogue.
5. Measure success – This module focuses on encouraging ABTA Members to monitor their performance and to paint the bigger picture with regards to the industry and their engagement with sustainability.

The programme includes lots of practical examples from ABTA Members, told in their own words.  Later on this year, ABTA Members using ‘Better Places’ will also be able to complete a baseline assessment tool. This will automatically generate an action plan, tailored for their business based on the individual answers they provide.

Nikki White, ABTA’s Head of Destinations and Sustainability said;

“I’m delighted to launch this practical and innovative programme, something that I am confident will equip our Members to build better places to work and better places to visit-as well as creating better businesses too.

“It’s more important than ever before that stakeholders get behind sustainability but with such a vast range of info about this available online it can often be confusing knowing where to begin. 

“In designing this programme, ABTA has tried to make sure that the information is tailored to the specifics of travel industry businesses. We’ve focused on the actions we know have a material impact and made the process simple. We’re looking forward to getting as many Members as possible to use ‘Better Places’ to drive their sustainability strategies forward”

‘Better Places’ is live on www.abta.com/member-zone and the Sustainable Tourism team at ABTA are also encouraging Members with any questions to get in touch via sustainabletourism@abta.co.uk