We are half way through this year’s Make Holidays Greener campaign, an initiative led by ABTA in partnership with Travelife for Hotels & Accommodations. The campaign aims to raise awareness of more sustainable holidays, and encourages holidaymakers and the industry to make sustainable holiday pledges, caring for the local environment and supporting local communities in holiday destinations.

We have seen some great successes so far with 374 consumer pledges already made by holidaymakers, with 83 people pledging to eat and drink locally, 35 pledging to reduce, reuse and recycle and 33 to switch off electricity. The travel industry is also taking action with over 40 destination initiatives including 41 beach cleans, tree planting, free wildlife tours and the introduction of reusable water bottles either planned or completed. So far, over 700 kilos of rubbish has been collected from beach cleans and over 400 people have taken part.

ABTA strongly believes that sustainability is relevant to all travel businesses, whether this means cutting waste and energy consumption, developing a sustainability strategy or reviewing the impact of hotels and excursions in destinations. We know that two thirds (65%) of people think travel companies should ensure their holidays help the local people and economy, so we would encourage all Members to get involved with our Make Holidays Greener campaign, whether by organising a beach clean or encouraging your customers to make a sustainable holiday pledge.

Register here to receive your Make Holidays Greener media kit to help you promote your activities on social media. The pack includes ready made tweets, images and logos for each pledge. Finally, don’t forget to use the hashtag #MHG17 so we share what you’re doing too.