The theme for this year’s Make Holidays Greener (MHG), the annual summer campaign led by ABTA in partnership with Travelife for Accommodation, is ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’. 

‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ was chosen as a follow-on from MHG 2018’s ‘Say no to plastic’ theme. Plastics will continue to be addressed in this year’s campaign, but it will also address managing waste, including food waste, from a broader perspective.

This year’s campaign also reflects consumer growth in awareness and industry action on sustainability issues. ABTA’s latest research shows that over a third (36%) of people would now choose one travel provider over another if they had a better environmental/sustainable record, compared to a fifth in 2011. 

Travel companies can get involved in a number of ways, from looking at recycling in destination, reducing food waste, finding credible alternatives for single-use plastics or inviting customers in resort to help take part in green initiatives. This year’s campaign will launch on 5 June, World Environment Day, and will run until the end of September.

Make Holidays Greener encourages holidaymakers and the industry to take positive action to help create better places for locals to live in, and better places for holidaymakers to visit. 

ABTA and Travelife for Accommodation will be supporting the industry in the lead up to the launch and throughout the campaign, offering advice and guidance. A campaign support pack has been developed and shared with travel agents, tour operators, destinations and accommodations to help them participate in the campaign. It includes how to engage customers, suggested social media activity and example case studies for inspiration. Travel companies can contact sustainabletourism@abta.co.uk to sign up and request a support pack.

ABTA also recently launched new plastic guidance to support travel businesses to take a long-term strategic approach in tackling their use of plastics, as part of a wider approach to waste management¹. The guidance uses the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle framework and can be used as a tool to help identify potential initiatives for Make Holidays Greener.

Sustainable tourism is essential for the industry’s long-term viability, and waste management is one of the main environmental issues, alongside carbon and water saving. ABTA Members and destinations have been including waste management as part of their wider sustainability strategy for some time now – working on areas such as recycling in destination, managing waste in the supply chain, reducing food waste and finding credible alternatives to plastics.

Nikki White, ABTA Director of Destinations and Sustainability said: 

“Whilst plastics has been high on the agenda, and will continue to be, it’s important both the industry and consumers look at waste from a broader perspective to make a positive change in the long term – which ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ aims to highlight. 

“Make Holidays Greener offers an opportunity for travel companies to try out new approaches using the waste framework of ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’. By testing out new initiatives and sharing best practice of what has worked, businesses can work towards achieving ‘the circular economy’ – where resources would be in use for as long as possible and we minimise waste or pollution.”

ABTA’s sustainability programme, Better Places, supports Members to adopt the best sustainability policy that works for them – offering guidance and support on how businesses can seek to address the impacts of tourism. 

The Travelife for Accommodation sustainability certification scheme also works with over 1,500 hotels around the world to help them improve their social, economic and environmental impacts.

All Travelife Gold certified hotels must manage and monitor their waste – as well as putting steps in place to reduce their production of all kinds of waste, especially plastic and food. Travelife Gold certified hotel examples include the Kuramathi Maldives, which processes up to 50 kilograms of food waste per week to produce organic compost for plants and landscaping projects, and the Paloma Oceana in Turkey which specifically records the amount of waste produced from packaging, with the aim to minimise its use.

For travel companies looking for further guidance on how to implement sustainable approaches across their business, ABTA’s ‘Delivering Sustainable Travel’ seminar on 18 June offers practical and up to date guidance, as well as advice on addressing the key supply chain risks. For more information or to sign up please visit abta.com/events.

For further information, contact:
020 3117 0596 or press@abta.co.uk
Emily Jones, Media and PR Manager, 020 3117 0592

Out of Hours: Contact the Duty Press Officer on 020 3693 0183
Web: www.abta.com
Twitter: @ABTAtravel

Notes to editors
¹ The guidance will be free to ABTA Members via the Member Zone. Non-Members can purchase the guidance for £100 via the ABTA shop.

ABTA has been a trusted travel brand for over 65 years. Our purpose is to help our Members to grow their businesses successfully and sustainably, and to help their customers travel with confidence. 
The ABTA brand stands for support, protection and expertise. This means consumers have confidence in ABTA and a strong trust in ABTA Members. These qualities are core to us as they ensure that holidaymakers remain confident in the holiday products that they buy from our Members. 

We help our Members and their customers navigate through today's changing travel landscape by raising standards in the industry; offering schemes of financial protection; providing an independent complaints resolution service should something go wrong; giving guidance on issues from sustainability to health and safety and by presenting a united voice to government to ensure the industry and the public get a fair deal.

ABTA has around 1,200 Members, with a combined annual UK turnover of £38 billion. For more details about what we do, what being an ABTA Member means and how we help the British public travel with confidence visit www.abta.com.