Improve supplier performance

Improve
supplier
performance:
Join Travelife to
improve sustainability
in your supply chain
www.travelife.org
Welcome
to Travelife, the supply chain solution for Tour Operators
There is a growing demand for international tour
operators to find ways to improve the environmental
and social performance of their suppliers and reduce
the impacts they have. The Travelife Sustainability
System is a certification scheme that provides tour
operators with an effective solution for monitoring and
improving the sustainability performance of their hotel
and accommodation suppliers.
What is the Travelife Sustainability System?
Our membership
The Travelife Sustainability System is an international
certification scheme that supports hotels and accommodations
to improve the way they manage their sustainability impacts,
helping international tour operators to improve the
environmental and social performance of their supply chains.
Travelife is a low cost certification scheme that has been
developed by the travel industry for the industry.
Our tour operator membership is international and includes
smaller, independent companies such as Sunvil, Belleair and
Britaly Holidays, as well as European operators such as Corendon
Vliegvakanties and the Oad Group, all who recognise the value
that Travelife brings to their operations.
It is the only sustainable tourism scheme that works in
partnership with tour operators and their suppliers to reduce
costs and support the delivery of their corporate responsibility
and sustainability objectives, with one audit per hotel that
reduces the burden on both. Additionally, Travelife is the only
system that has gained support by the European Parliament, as
well as the European Travel Agents’ and Tour Operators’
Association (ECTAA) and a growing number of European trade
associations such as ANVR in the Netherlands.
Our larger tour operator members include TUI Travel Plc,
Thomas Cook Group, Kuoni (all three in multiple international
source markets), Cosmos, Virgin Holidays and Transat (Canada).
This demonstrates that no matter the size of the operation,
the certification scheme works for any tour operator –
irrespective of their home country, source market or holiday type
(beach, ski, adventure or otherwise) – who wants to improve the
sustainability performance of hotels and accommodations in
their supply chain.
Travelife is currently undergoing a review of its criteria, with a
view to achieving recognition by the Global Sustainable Tourism
Council in 2012.
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www.travelife.org
Benefits
of tour operator membership
Joining Travelife delivers a range of benefits, including:
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At the touch of a button, members can see
how well their suppliers are performing and
be assured that they are taking action to fulfil
contractual requirements or business
requirements.
Travelife has a growing reputation
internationally as a respected sustainable
tourism certification scheme. And as more
international tour operators adopt Travelife
and communicate its purpose to customers in
multiple source markets, more holiday
decisions will be based on whether or not a
hotel or accommodation holds a Travelife
certification award.
Joining Travelife is very cost-effective, to
ensure that both tour operators and their
accommodations can collaborate and reduce
their sustainability impacts for the benefit of
thriving destinations. By adopting the
Travelife Sustainability System,
accommodations will be able to identify
efficiencies that reduce their costs, as well as
delivering positive benefits that support tour
operators’ sustainability objectives.
Increased Assurance
Tour operators can remotely monitor key
suppliers based thousands of miles away
through Travelife’s online management tool
that will keep them regularly informed about
the progress of their contracted
accommodation suppliers.
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Internationally recognised
Low Cost, High Returns
www.travelife.org
Benefits
of tour operator membership
Joining Travelife delivers a range of benefits, including:
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Tour operators find that by working with their
suppliers to achieve Travelife awards, they
often enhance their relationships. By working in
collaboration, information can be shared about
Travelife-awarded properties, reducing the need
for multiple audits of shared properties.
More and more holidaymakers are seeking
holidays with an environmental rating, with
increasing numbers saying they would be
prepared to pay more for more sustainable
holiday options (ABTA, 2011). By highlighting
Travelife-awarded properties in brochures or
on websites, our tour operator members are
demonstrating they are responsible businesses
who are committed to offering their customers
a greater choice of sustainable accommodations.
Enhanced Supplier
Relationships
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Meeting Customer Demand
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Winning Business through
Travelife Collection
Hotels achieving a Travelife award showcase
their properties in the Travelife Collection, an
online consumer website that provides
information about awarded properties, helping
customers to identify more sustainable holiday
options. Once customers have made their
hotel selection, they can click through to the
tour operator’s website to progress their
holiday booking. For more information about
the Travelife Collection, please visit
www.travelifecollection.com
www.travelife.org
In your words
What our international tour operator members say about Travelife
“We are convinced of the strong link between the long term
success of our industry and the impacts of our holidays on the
environment and communities. We strongly recommend that
accommodation providers subscribe to Travelife which offers a
cost-effective way to manage the sustainability of the business
and to promote its achievements to a wide audience.”
“TRAVELIFE...OFFERS TOUR
OPERATORS A LOW COST SOLUTION
TO MANAGE SUSTAINABILITY”
Jane Ashton
Head of Sustainable Development
TUI Travel plc
Andy Cooper Director of Government and External Affairs, Thomas Cook Group plc
“Hotelplan is happy to promote Travelife because it’s an
international label and works with the same guidelines for hotels
and resorts all over the world. Furthermore, Travelife is one of the
few certification programmes to value social policy as highly as
environmental management.”
“Travelife is an industry driven system which is a solution to a very
important issue: taking care of local communities and the
environment. Communicating Travelife results to our employees,
our suppliers, and our customers helps us achieve our goal of
fostering a sustainable supply chain.”
Anja Dobes
Coordinator Sustainability Hotelplan Suisse
Hotelplan
Matthias Leisinger
Head of Corporate Responsibility
Kuoni Travel Ltd
“We recognise the importance of supporting our supply chain in
their management of sustainability issues. Travelife is an industryled scheme which offers tour operators a low cost solution to
manage sustainability and offers customers an easy way to identify
those businesses. We are pleased to feature these awards within
our brochures and on our website.”
Andy Cooper
Director of Government and External Affairs
Thomas Cook Group plc
“A COST-EFFECTIVE WAY TO MANAGE
THE SUSTAINABILITY OF THE BUSINESS”
Jane Ashton Head of Sustainable Development, TUI Travel plc
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www.travelife.org
In your words
What our international tour operator members say about Travelife
“TRAVELIFE PROVIDES AN EASY-TO-FOLLOW,
STEP-BY-STEP APPROACH WHICH CAN BE ADOPTED BY ALL”
Noel Josephides Managing Director, Sunvil Holidays
“Being socially and ecologically responsible along our supply chain
and throughout our operations is very important to Thomas Cook
– both in the source market and in the destinations. Travelife is a
great opportunity to ensure sustainability within our supply chain
and to support hoteliers in realising sustainable measures in an
easy and economical way.”
Annette Höher
Head of Innovation, Destination and Quality Management
and Sustainability
Thomas Cook AG
“For us it has been a logical step to join Travelife since this is a cost
efficient and an effective tool for managing the supply chain of
sustainable tourism businesses worldwide. Travelife will help our
tour operators and travel agents to inform consumers on
responsible holiday choices.”
Frank Oostdam
ANVR: The Netherlands Association of Travel Agents
and Tour Operators
“As the market leader in the Dutch travel industry, we are
committed to ensuring our holiday destinations have a sustainable
future. For this reason, we aim to deliver quality holidays which
respect people and nature. Our aim is to improve the sales of
sustainability certified accommodations to our guests. Travelife is
our preferred partner in accomplishing our goals.”
Elise Allart
Manager Sustainable Tourism
TUI Nederland
“Sustainability is of paramount importance and it is the
responsibility of everyone within the tourism industry – operators
and hoteliers alike – to minimise negative impacts of their business
practices. Travelife provides an easy-to-follow, step-by-step
approach which can be adopted by all.”
“TRAVELIFE WILL HELP OUR TOUR
OPERATORS AND TRAVEL AGENTS ”
Noel Josephides
Managing Director
Sunvil Holidays
Frank Oostdam ANVR: The Netherlands Association
of Travel Agents and Tour Operators
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www.travelife.org
Thriving destinations
In September 2010, an EU Eco-Innovation
project named INTOUR was launched,
designed to align the EU Eco-label for
accommodations with the Travelife
Sustainability System for hotels and
accommodations.
The existing Travelife sustainability criteria will
be extended to other elements of a tourism
package such as transport, excursions,
attractions, encouraging an increase in the
uptake of environmental management and
labelling schemes throughout the supply chain.
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This will then be piloted in destinations such as
Turkey, Italy and Austria, demonstrating that
the supply chain approach brings together tour
operators, hotels and their destinations to
encourage the uptake of EU voluntary tools
and ultimately, the delivery of environmental,
social and economic improvement.
This project is co-funded by the European
Union within the Eco-Innovation initiative of
the Competitiveness and Innovation
Framework Programme (CIP).
www.travelife.org
Joining Travelife
get in touch today, to see how we can help your businesss
Travelife offers both tour operators and their suppliers a
low-cost solution that provides a good basis for
sustainability management, as well as excellent valuefor-money. Tour operator membership is charged
annually and based on the size and scope of the
business. In return, members are invited to develop
their relationship with the Travelife team as well as
other international tour operator members, to ensure
that they gain the most out of their membership.
To find out more about joining Travelife as a tour
operator member, please contact the Travelife team
on [email protected] or +44 (0)20 3117 0591
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www.travelife.org
T +44 (0)20 3117 0591
F +44 (0)20 3117 0581
E [email protected]
www.travelife.org
Travelife
30 Park Street
London
SE1 9EQ
United Kingdom
Supported by
The information provided in this leaflet does not necessarily reflect the official
position of the EACI, the European Commission or other European institution.
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