Travel industry warned ‘tackle climate disaster before it’s too late’

The travel industry has been urged to prove its commitment to sustainability with “rapid decarbonisation” to avoid a climate disaster.

James Thornton, chief executive of Intrepid Travel, one of the first carbonneutral tour operators, warned delegates at the Abta travel convention in Morocco that urgent change was required.

“The travel and tourism industry is at the front seat of the climate disaster,” he said. “Change is required as soon as possible. The reality is, there is no vaccine for climate change. We won’t have a world to show our customers if we don’t tackle climate change.”

According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, the travel industry generates between 8% and 11% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, the majority from transportation.

However, Thornton claimed that of the 3,547 private companies that have so far committed to reducing carbon emissions through the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), only 74 were tourism and hospitality businesses and, of those, only 29 have had their targets approved.

“The problem is, Intrepid, along with a handful of other travel and tourism businesses, are starting to feel quite lonely in the Science Based Targets community … it begs the question, where is everyone else?” he said.

“Travel cannot meaningfully address climate change by talking about how important it is and how committed we all are. We really need concrete actions. And we need them now. Otherwise, it’s just greenwashing – and we see that in travel all the time,” he added.

Intrepid, the largest travel B Corp company, took the lead on being carbon-neutral in 2010, and has removed short-haul flights from its 50 top itineraries replacing them with alternatives such as bus and train travel.

“Beyond flying, there are over 30 forms of transportation that Intrepid travellers use on their trips,” said Thornton. “This includes all sorts of things, like buses, taxis, rickshaws, snow mobiles and even camels. Operating more than 2,000 trips in more than 100 countries, we rely on plenty of ways to get around.”

“In a growing number of cases, that getting around is increasingly human