Organisations & Operators,

The U.S. Travel Association has announced the launch of its new Sustainable Travel Coalition, which aims to align the travel, transportation and technology sectors in developing and advancing strategies to enable a more sustainable future for the U.S. travel industry.
With nearly 60 member organisations at launch, the Sustainable Travel Coalition will serve as an advisory body to inform U.S. Travel on sustainability issues, opportunities and concerns within member organisations and destinations. A dedicated Policy Committee will help drive the broader coalition’s efforts to enable regular progress and collaboration.
U.S. Travel has several long-term goals, which will inform the coalition’s near-term policy priorities. The long-term goals:
Spotlight industry progress by showcasing innovative technologies and calling attention to the ongoing actions and leadership of travel professionals in the sustainability space.
Amplify industry goals and commitments to conservation, best practices, waste and emission reductions and both long- and short-term investments.
Highlight why sustainability matters and the importance of it as a core to travel’s future.
Play offense by identifying and promoting proactive policies to help the industry achieve its goals.
Defend against harmful policies that slow progress toward sustainability goals or penalise the industry without progress.
“Seeing the world and saving the world should not be mutually exclusive,” said U.S. Travel Association Executive Vice President of Public Affairs and Policy Tori Emerson Barnes. “As technology advances and consumers demand more sustainable travel options, the work of this coalition will ensure that the U.S. travel industry can meet the needs of an evolving market while also protecting our planet’s natural resources.”
“This is clearly an issue that spans well beyond the travel industry itself to practically all other sectors of the U.S. economy,” added Barnes. “By bringing together stakeholders across related industries, we are aligning leaders in travel, transportation and technology on the critical issues that will affect their businesses for decades to come.”ADVERTISEMENTTRAVEL INDUSTRY LETTER TO CONGRESSTo accelerate investment in sustainable travel, more than 100 travel industry organisations—including groups within and outside the Sustainable Travel Coalition—called on the federal government to advance the following near-term priorities:
A tax credit for the production and use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), such as those proposed in the Sustainable Skies Act (H.R. 3440/S. 2263).
An enhanced tax credit to increase the availability of electric vehicle charging stations.
An enhanced tax deduction to increase energy efficiency upgrades to commercial buildings.
Federal investments to protect and restore natural attractions, including recreational waterways, shorelines, and National Parks.
Other clean energy incentives for investment in renewable energy deployment, green hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, direct air capture and other innovative technologies to lower the carbon intensity of transportation fuels and the power grid.
In addition to the priorities detailed in the letter, the coalition will identify and advocate for other priorities in the coming months.

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With the parliamentary term over and MPs back in their constituencies, we now know that either former chancellor Rishi Sunak or foreign secretary Liz Truss will soon be the UK’s next prime minister.
The Conservative Party leadership election, brought about by the resignation of Boris Johnson on 7 July, is due to run throughout the summer – with national television debates and local party hustings taking place across the country. The contest could reach a sudden conclusion if one candidate decides to pull out, as occurred in the 2016 leadership election between Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom, but failing that eventuality, we expect the winner and new PM to be announced on 5 September.
ABTA obviously doesn’t get a vote and will remain neutral, as is appropriate for a politically impartial organisation. But we will be putting forward the industry’s priorities to both candidates, making clear the issues the travel industry needs government to grasp. These include future resilience planning and recovery from Covid-19, managing cost of living impacts, the need to reconsider labour mobility arrangements between the UK and EU, and the importance of ensuring better coordination across government in relation to international travel policy.
On the latter point, ABTA welcomed the recent formation of a new aviation council, which formed part of the government’s strategic framework to deliver for the sector over the next decade. The council is due to bring together representatives from leading travel businesses and their main trade bodies, including ABTA, with government ministers and officials right across Whitehall. Crucially, the council will include participation from Number 10 and HM Treasury, which is something that has been called for by the entire aviation and travel eco-system as a learning from the pandemic.
With the change of administration taking place, we will be delivering our message that improving the quality of engagement between industry and government is critically important – and that this group has the potential to make a worthwhile contribution.ADVERTISEMENTWe are also continuing to call for a minister to be given specific responsibility for overseeing the cross-government approach to international travel policy, especially in times of crisis. Due to the disruption being seen at airports and with airlines, travel has been high on the media and political agenda in recent weeks. The impact on travellers has been covered frequently by media and referenced by several politicians in parliament, including during the business, energy and industrial strategy (Beis) committee evidence session held on 14 June.
ABTA has been focused on ensuring accuracy and perspective in media coverage, making clear what consumers can expect in terms of their rights if they suffer delays or cancellations, but also seeking to remind audiences that most people are getting away successfully without significant issues.
We’ve also sought to bring a similar balance in our political engagement. Following the Beis hearing, we followed up with the, chair Darren Jones MP, to ensure members understood the perspective of intermediaries, including travel agents, tour operators and TMCs, and the value travel experts bring in terms of offering consumer advice and reassurance.
We’ve also held recent meetings with the tourism and aviation ministers, respectively, and continue to engage with the Future of Aviation all-party parliamentary group to spread similar messages to MPs and peers across parliament.
Getting in earlyAlongside our political engagement, much of ABTA’s advocacy work on a day to day basis happens with officials as they seek to carry forward instructions given by ministers. For example, last week the Department for Transport published its Aviation Passenger Charter which ABTA, along with other industry representatives and consumer bodies, had been considering over recent weeks.
Experts from ABTA attended several workshops as the content took shape, and this is an excellent example of the detailed engagement that is often under way behind the scenes. We are also engaging regularly with the teams responsible for Atol reform and the Package Travel Regulations to provide evidence around what is happening across the industry and to inform future policy development. This side of our work never stops and will continue throughout the summer.
Over the weeks ahead, my team will also be busy refreshing our briefings for newly appointed ministers. ABTA will be seeking to get in early to ensure individuals given responsibility for the policies that matter to travel understand our views.
Additionally, we have some new research due for publication in September on the value of our sector, and the prize that is on offer in terms of recovery and future growth. There will be more information on this, including how members and the wider sector can help us promote the importance of travel to your own MPs, in the autumn.
Whoever emerges victorious from the race to be PM, ABTA will – to borrow the phrase used by one of the candidates – hit the ground running.
Luke Petherbridge, Director of Public Affairs, ABTA

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ABTA – The Travel Association has issued its top tips for families travelling abroad during the summer holidays, with this weekend marking the start of the summer break for the majority of schools in England and Wales.
According to ABTA’s latest research, three in four (75%) families are set to be travelling overseas this summer, with almost half planning to enjoy a beach break (47%), a third opting for an all-inclusive holiday (33%) and one in five jetting off on a city break (19%).
With many heading overseas for the first time in three years, ABTA has the following ‘super six’ tips to help their journeys go as smoothly as possible:
1. Make sure you’ve checked the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) travel advice for your destination before you travel (gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice).2. Plan your journey to the airport, train station or ferry port in advance and allow extra time for traffic, planned road closures or engineering works.3. Arrive at the earliest time advised by your airline or transport provider (arriving earlier than this may add to queues at the terminal).4. Make sure you’re ready to present your passports and any COVID-related documents you need at check-in. You also have the option to check-in online which may save you time.5. Prepare your hand luggage for security by placing large electrical items like laptops and tablets in the trays provided alongside any liquids you’re taking – these need to be 100ml or less and placed inside a 20cm x 20cm plastic bag.6. Take off items of clothing like coats, jackets and belts when passing through security and put any items in your pockets into the trays provided.
More tips and advice on travel can be found at www.abta.com/getreadyfortravel.ADVERTISEMENTGraeme Buck, Director of Communications at ABTA – The Travel Association said:
“The school summer holidays are usually the busiest time of year for travel, so planning ahead is the best way to make the start of your holiday as stress-free as possible. Holidaymakers can help keep queues to a minimum by arriving at the airport at the time advised by their airline, having their travel documents ready for check-in and carefully preparing their hand luggage for security.”

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Airbnb has been recognised as a Disability Equality Index® (DEI) Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion. We are proud to share that we received a 100 percent score on the DEI for the second year in a row, joining 240 companies with a top score.
The DEI was launched in 2015 by Disability:IN and The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and is acknowledged today as the most robust disability inclusion assessment tool in business. The DEI was created by the DEI Advisory Committee, a diverse group of business leaders, policy experts, and disability advocates. Now in its eighth year, the DEI exists to help businesses make a positive impact on the unemployment/underemployment of people with disabilities. In 2022, 415 corporations utilised the DEI to benchmark their disability inclusion efforts.
Airbnb is committed to disability inclusion for our employees and our community of Hosts and guests around the world. While this recognition is important, we are committed to continued progress and improvement to help ensure our product, community, and company is inclusive of people with disabilities. Some of our ongoing work includes:
Reviewing and improving our company policies and practices to ensure they’re inclusive of employees with disabilities.
Providing training for Airbnb employees designed to strengthen disability allyship within our company.
Executive sponsorship and support for [email protected], our employee resource group for employees with disabilities and allies.
Continuing to expand our definitions of diversity to help us better understand and support our employees. In the US, and now newly launched in the UK and Ireland, employees can now voluntarily share if they identify with having a disability.
Through our Supplier Diversity program, connecting more diverse-owned (including people with disabilities-owned) businesses with Airbnb to provide goods and services.
Engaging with the disability community by hosting Disability Advisory roundtables in the United States and in Europe with national and regional organisations, activists, advocates, and leaders to inform our work.
Introducing updates to make it easier for guests with disabilities to find and book accommodations and activities that meet their needs, including our Accessibility Review for Stays and accessibility filters for Experiences.
As a Worldwide Paralympic Partner in a nine-year, five-Games partnership, supporting Paralympian athletes as Hosts and guests on Airbnb.
Continued membership in the Valuable 500, a movement to encourage businesses to advance disability inclusion in their organisation.
Globally, people with disabilities represent over one billion people. Disability is a natural part of the human experience, and it crosses lines of age, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and religion.
“Disability inclusion is a rapidly expanding aspect of corporate culture, and it’s gratifying to partner with 415 companies on the 2022 Disability Equality Index,” said Jill Houghton, President and CEO of Disability:IN. “These top-scoring companies not only excel in disability inclusion, many are also adopting emerging trends and pioneering measures that can move the disability agenda from accommodation to inclusion and ultimately, genuine belonging.”
“There is no single best way to practice disability inclusion, however, the companies taking the DEI share the desire to create a workplace that fosters the concept of bringing your whole self to the office,” said Maria Town, President and CEO of AAPD. “We look forward to working with all of the participants to help identify meaningful ways to build upon their current practices as we continue on the disability inclusion journey together.”ADVERTISEMENT

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The latest research from ABTA shows demand for trusted travel advice and package holidays remains high as the industry gears up for the busiest summer season since the start of the pandemic.
According to ABTA’s findings, people are currently 37% more likely to book with a travel professional now than before the pandemic. Reasons given by consumers are for their up-to-date advice (45%), the security of a package holiday (43%) and for help with COVID-19 requirements (41%).
The findings also show high confidence in the ABTA brand, with seven in 10 (70%) consumers saying they are more likely to book with a company using the ABTA logo than one which is not, and over a third (36%) saying they are willing to spend more on a holiday booked through an ABTA Member.
To support this desire to book with trusted ABTA Members, ABTA has produced a range of marketing materials that Members can use to raise awareness of their ABTA membership with new and existing customers.
This includes a new graphic that states “We’re proud to be an ABTA Member” that Members can print as A1 and A4 posters for display in retail stores, add to their email signatures or share on social media using the hashtag #WeAreABTAMembers. The materials are available to download at www.abta.com/yourabtamembership. ADVERTISEMENTABTA has also been running social media advertising to raise awareness of the expertise and reassurance that ABTA Members offer their customers. The social media advert for Facebook and Instagram shares 10 reasons to book and travel with an ABTA Member and has so far been seen 1.2 million times.
Graeme Buck, Director of Communications at ABTA – The Travel Association said:
“This increased reliance on travel professionals and the enduring confidence in the ABTA brand have been coming through strongly in our consumer research since the start of the pandemic, as people have recognised the huge benefits of getting expert help and advice when booking their holidays.
“The public associates ABTA Members with high standards and first-class customer service, so these new marketing materials are designed to help our Members proudly promote their invaluable knowledge and expertise to their customers, whether they’re repeat bookers or coming through their doors for the first time.”
ABTA has also just launched a new consumer competition called #HelloHolidays which offers ABTA Members’ customers the chance to win £250 of shopping vouchers. All entrants need to do is share a photo of their holiday on the social media channel of their choice and tag the ABTA Member they’ve booked with to be entered into the prize draw. The competition closes on 5 September 2022 and ABTA Members are encouraged to ask their customers to enter.

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The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is once again calling on the Canadian Government to urgently discontinue the current COVID-19 related travel restrictions. These are now out of step with the global trend of lifting travel restrictions and are partly responsible for the ongoing delays and disruption affecting air travelers across Canada.
“Canada has become a total outlier in managing COVID-19 and travel. While governments across the globe are rolling back restrictions, the Government of Canada is reinstating them. The Government should follow the lead of its peers, including, for example, Australia. While that country had some of the toughest travel restrictions during the height of the pandemic, it has now lifted these, including the vaccination requirement. Rather than following this example and enabling travel and tourism to recover, those in power in Canada believe that throwing more red tape at the pandemic is the way forward,” said Peter Cerda, IATA’s Regional Vice President for the Americas.
Hence, IATA is calling on the Government of Canada to quickly address the following issues:
Remove random testing of international arriving passengersIf, as announced, random testing is reinstated from 19 July 2022, then travelers will be forced to either go to a designated testing center or administer a self-test after arrival. In case of a positive test result, travelers must isolate for 10 days, which is twice as long as the average isolation period recommend by any provincial or territorial health authority in Canada and once again singles out travelers as compared to the rest of the population.
End the vaccination requirement for international travelThe vaccination mandate for international travel to Canada is in essence obsolete, as only the basic immunisation and no booster shots are required to be considered fully vaccinated. In addition, the proof of vaccination is no longer used in everyday life in Canada. Ending this travel-related mandate would remove the need for the manual and time-intensive documentation check at flight origins outside Canada and during immigration upon arrival.ADVERTISEMENTUse ArriveCAN solely as an entry tool for customsThe removal of the vaccination mandate would also allow ArriveCAN to be used solely for customs and immigration purposes and not for capturing and validating COVID-19 related health and vaccination information. This is what is slowing down border processing. In addition, airlines are now being asked to provide a list of passengers who have not completed ArriveCAN not later than one hour after the departure of an international flight to Canada. This is tying up critical staff at a time when resources are already stretched to the limit.
Ending Mask MandatesMask mandates at airports and on aircraft need to be withdrawn, especially since they are no longer in place in most public settings in Canada, including public transport and sporting venues.“After more than two-years of onerous COVID-19 restrictions people want to be able to travel again, as we can clearly see from the current level of demand. Ramping up the entire value chain has come with some challenges. Maintaining outdated COVID-19 restrictions contributes to the delays passengers are experiencing at major Canadian international gateways. Governments need to ensure that travel restrictions are designed to address today’s environment, not the environment of the previous two years. Now is the time for the Government of Canada to join its counterparts around the world and remove unnecessary and outdated measures,” said Cerda.

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Launched at the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, which this year is held around the theme of ‘building back better’ from the pandemic, the UN reports draw on UNWTO’s statistical work to track tourism’s role in delivering meaningful progress for people and the planet. Specifically, the UN SG Progress report on SDGs with its statistical annex will serve as an input to the deliberations of the HLFP. Alongside this, the Sustainable Development Goals Extended Report is aimed at the wider public and provides an overview of all 17 Goals with infographics, including those illustrating the relevance of tourism.
Prepared in collaboration with the entire UN Statistical System, the reports and their latest available data show that action is needed to accelerate the delivery on the SDGs and to step up national measurement efforts, including for the tourism sector.
As demonstrated in section on SDG8 (‘Decent Work and Economic Growth’), tourism a major force of development was one of the most affected economic sectors by the COVID-19 Pandemic as global GDP from tourism nearly halved between 2019 and 2020, with wide-reaching consequences for jobs, local businesses and conservation efforts.
On SDG12 (‘Responsible Production and Consumption’), UNWTO’s statistics serve to highlight the importance of national efforts to implement standardized tools like Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSAs) and the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA). Both underpin the UNWTO-led Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism (MST) that assesses the social, economic and environmental impacts and dependencies of tourism—at national and sub-national levels -. These tools also underline the importance of multistakeholder collaboration which is fostered through the Sustainable Tourism Programme of the One Planet network.
As countries build back better and aim to build more sustainable and resilient tourism, various policy frameworks have recognized the need for these measurement tools to guide their efforts and thus contribute to more evidence-based policymaking. Examples at the international and regional level are the UNWTO Recommendations for the Transition to a Green Travel and Tourism Economy and the AlUla Framework for Inclusive Community Development Through Tourism, both welcomed and endorsed by the G20, the European Parliament resolution on establishing a strategy for sustainable tourism, the Pacific Sustainable Tourism Policy Framework, UNWTO General Assembly resolutions and UN Statistical Commission decisions.ADVERTISEMENT

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