Democratising access to sustainability data

Extreme weather events are contributing to an increasingly worrying number of natural disasters, many of which are in tourism hotspots such as the recent fires in Los Angeles and the flooding in Spain last year. Yet tourism continues to grow.

According to UN Tourism, by 2030, we’re expecting 1.8 billion international arrivals each year; nearly double the numbers we saw just two decades ago. Accommodating those kinds of numbers can only be sustainable if we focus beyond profit, prioritising people and places too.

We’ve spent decades talking about sustainability, eco-tourism, green tourism, regenerative tourism, and conscious travel. Whatever label we give it, we must do better and we must turn talk into action. We only have five years until 2030, a key milestone on our global journey towards a resilient future for our planet.

When tourism represents around 10 per cent of global GDP, and one in ten of all jobs, the opportunity to drive positive change is enormous.

Every day I’m inspired by countless examples of tourism as a force for good:

• One of my favourite examples is SASANE in Nepal; a social company that trains female survivors of human trafficking to become certified tour and trekking guides.
• Similarly, there’s Amba Yallu at Kandalama; Sri Lanka’s first hotel run entirely by women. From resort manager to gardener, the hotel has 80 staff, all female, and I admire them for their groundbreaking commitment to female empowerment, something tourism is specifically well-placed to support.
• There’s Taj Exotica Resort & Spa in the Maldives running entirely off renewable energy during the day with its floating solar park.
• And an example closer to home, for me at least, is Invisible Cities in Scotland; a social enterprise that trains people who have experienced homelessness to become tour guides of their own city.

All of these are examples of a better way to travel and operate, and give me hope.

Imagine a world where travellers could easily find these options that leave a more positive footprint. We know from our own research at Travalyst that consumers (63%) don’t want to spend time researching the impact of their travel choices. We know that they want data at their fingertips. Thanks to Travalyst’s work in its first five years, flight emissions information has appeared in billions of searches and is now seen by travellers globally when booking a trip.

By leveraging this experience, we now aim to democratise access to sustainability information beyond flights.

Right now, there is no single source of truth for sustainability data for the tourism industry. The information that does exist is fragmented, incomplete, often behind paywalls, and sometimes not compliant. This can leave the industry feeling uncertain and overwhelmed about how they can measure, communicate and improve their efforts. Which, in turn, leads to confused and disengaged travellers - across both leisure and corporate travel. We want to help to change that.

Through industry collaboration, our mission is to provide trusted information at scale to empower better decision making and accelerate impact-led change across travel and tourism. Travalyst is taking on an ambitious initiative to centralise the collection and distribution of consistent, credible and compliant sustainability data for key areas of travel and tourism, starting with accommodation. We will support the scaling of this information through our coalition partners and beyond, which means travellers can start to make more informed choices based on trusted data every time they travel.

2030 is right around the corner and 2050 will be here before we know it. There has been years of discussion but action is now urgently needed. As a neutral organisation we are accountable only to the planet, and are uniquely positioned to coordinate system-wide collaboration and catalyse change. And indeed, deep and intentional collaboration across the industry is needed, with urgency, to protect the communities and places that we love for future generations.