Simplifying Sustainable Travel
Newly launched, For Good, For Travel (FGFT) is a not-for-profit project that’s designed to help travel advisors help their clients understand specific and simple actions they can take to travel more sustainably.
The online initiative encourages education and giving based on a destination’s progress toward achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals as agreed upon by all 193 member states of the United Nations.
Launched by Tim Morgan (currently The 1000, formerly Virtuoso), the resource is updated yearly alongside data licensed through the authoritative annual “Sustainable Development Report”, by Sachs et al (Cambridge University Press).
Jackie Friedman, President, Nexion, said that: “More and more, travelers are looking for guidance on sustainability. This platform presents an opportunity for travel advisors to help educate themselves and their travelers from the beginning of the trip planning process, providing a valuable added resource in the advisors’ toolkit.”
A recent Booking.com 2022 Sustainable Travel Report analyzed 30,000 traveller opinions from 32 countries and reported that 71% of respondents said that they want to make more effort in the next year to travel more sustainably (compared to 61% in the previous year’s survey); 25% said they would be willing to pay more to ensure they are giving back to local communities; but 34% said they don’t know where to find the information.
Said Morgan: “There is a real need and a real desire for greater education about sustainable travel among advisors and their clients. My hope is that For Good, For Travel will help put a complicated subject into simple terms that serve as a starting point for travelers’ continued growth as global citizens.”
Built on voluntary feedback from dozens of travel advisors, agency and consortia managers, and supplier executives from around the world, For Good, For Travel uses a simple methodology to calculate a daily travel donation suggestion based on each country’s progress toward achieving their overall goal.
The project also gives readers the option to focus their education and giving on specific goals, such as hunger, equality, conservation, and more, for those wanting to take a more individual and personal approach.
Keith Waldon, Founder & Director, Departure Lounge, observed that: “Sustainability is very important to everything that we do at Departure Lounge. Our travel advisors and their clients are expecting accountability from our partners regarding their sustainability practices and any resource that helps shine a light on how everyone can and should play their part will hopefully ultimately lead to positive change.”
Go to https://www.fgft.org/ for more.
