The Travel Corporation’s Tour Brands (Luxury Gold, Insight Vacations, Trafalgar, Costsaver and Contiki) announced that they are bidding farewell to all branded merchandise they give away and instead repurposing global funds to projects that fight climate change on behalf of their guests, trade partners and internal team members.
With a 4 step Climate Action plan already in place, that includes near-term, long-term and net zero carbon emissions targets validated by the Science-based Targets Initiative (SBTi), TTC Tour Brands continues to put their mission to “MAKE TRAVEL MATTER®” at the fore. After assessing the unnecessary carbon emissions emitted by the business*, they discovered that by saying no to “more stuff” they could prevent the equivalent carbon emissions of 6.5 million car-driven miles from entering the atmosphere annually.
As a result, from today, the brands within the portfolio commit to no longer ordering branded merchandise for gifting, with more brands across The Travel Corporation to follow. In its place, TTC Tour Brands will repurpose the funds traditionally allocated to branded merchandise and introduce donations to nature-based solutions projects that will remove a further 1.5 million car-driven miles’ worth of carbon emissions from the atmosphere by December 2024.
“No one needs “more stuff”, yet everyone needs to take responsibility for the future of our planet. Our industry as a whole is no exception, and we believe the gift of travel should be preserved for generations to come”, says TTC Tour Brands Managing Director, Kelly Jackson. We continue to do what we can to make a positive impact in line with our How We Tread Right 5-year sustainability strategy and our not- for-profit foundation, TreadRight”
With the latest reports emerging from COP 28 indicating that insufficient progress has been made toward arresting the speed of climate change, TTC Tour Brands’ guests, trade partners and team members can feel good about the positive impact they will now make every time a donation is made on their behalf. The brand’s ‘no more stuff’ commitment collectively works toward keeping global warming below 1.5°C by mid-century.
TTC Tour Brands will donate to projects that are already supported by their not-for-profit foundation TreadRight – GreenWave’s Kelp Climate Fund Project and Rainforest Rescue’s Daintree Project. Both nature-based solutions, these projects are initiatives that work for and with nature to address issues facing the environment, society and biodiversity.
Donations to GreenWave’s Kelp Climate Fund Project will pay for the planting of kelp across regenerative ocean farms in North America. Kelp provides a powerful and scalable carbon drawdown solution that both captures and stores carbon as well as supports economies and global food systems.
Donations to Rainforest Rescue’s Daintree Project will protect and restore parts of Australia’s precious Daintree Rainforest (the world’s longest continually evolving rainforest). This will preserve biodiversity and remove carbon from the atmosphere through planting, maintenance and restoration programs executed in partnership with the traditional landowners, the Eastern Kuku Yalanji people.
As a final step, all TTC Tour Brand offices will rehome any leftover or outdated merchandise either to local charities who can best re-use the items or utilise for internal fundraisers where proceeds will provide further donation support to their nature-based solutions partners.
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