Harry in a hurry on sustainability

PRINCE Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has starred in a lengthy new commercial for his nonprofit group Travalyst, testing out his dry comedic acting skills in the process to shed more light on the organisation which aims to promote more sustainable tourism around the world.

The ad also features Flight of the Concords funny-man Rhys Darby (inset), who chases the jogging Prince through the New Zealand bush to extract a series of bizarre travel ratings.

Travalyst was founded in 2019 and has since formed major partnerships with blue chip travel brands such as Booking.com, Skyscanner, Trip.com Group, Tripadvisor and Visa, and lists its primary objective as encouraging travellers to make more ecoconscious choices while they are on a trip.

“Our shared goal is to make sustainability reporting - and eventually supply scoring/ indexing - a core part of the consumer experience; where consistent information is published globally across all travel platforms,” the organisation states on its website.

So far the organisation has cultivated a methodology for measuring the eco impact of aviation and accommodation, with longer term ambitions to roll out to other travel verticals.

Speaking after the debut of the new glossy commercial, Prince Harry said: “In a world where we’re tasked with rating so many things, we’re now asking, what if your destination rated you?

“Starting in beautiful Aotearoa New Zealand, we’re launching our first campaign.”

Travalyst has made plenty of waves over the last month, recently appointing Intrepid Travel co-founder Darrell Wade as the organisation’s Chair (TD 26 Apr), while also landing Expedia as part of its Sustainable Coalition of travel brands (TD 22 Apr) watch the ad hERE.