'We are fortunate in our specialist portfolio to have sustainability well established in the philosophy of many of our businesses, which creates a great platform on which to build a clearly visible long-term strategy. Our aim is to ensure that customers trust us to do the right thing.'
Richard Prosser, Managing Director, Specialist & Emerging Markets

Operating in North America, Europe and a number of emerging markets including Russia, this sector comprises over 40 specialist travel companies. Our specialist businesses focus on specific destinations, premium travel experiences or particular customer demographic segments, often with differentiated and exclusive products. Our brands include TCS, Starquest Expeditions, Sovereign, Hayes & Jarvis, I Viaggi del Turchese and Ambassador Tours.

The Specialist & Emerging Markets Sector has a diverse mix of colleagues and our customers have varying degrees of awareness of, and involvement in, sustainable development. However, we are fortunate that many of our businesses have a good understanding of sustainability and customers who trust them to be as good as their word.

Sector strategy and network

We appointed our Sector Coordinator in June 2008, and she spent three months visiting and conducting research to gain a complete picture of best practice across the sector. With such a varied portfolio of businesses, relationship building and gaining buy-in from senior management were key to this process.

Our sustainable development strategy is based on recognising where each of our businesses is on its sustainability journey, showing sensitivity to them as a unique business, and working with them at the appropriate stage of implementation.

To engage our colleagues, who are in seven source markets across three continents and who speak five languages, we have created a network of champions across the sector, in four main divisions:

• North America Student businesses
• North America Leisure businesses
• European businesses
• UK & Ireland Specialist Division (UKISD)

The Sector Coordinator organised ‘train the trainer’ workshops for all champions, building their ability to promote sustainable development within their businesses. Within each workshop was a practical, sustainable development-related activity to motivate the champions.

Climate Change

Businesses in the Specialist & Emerging Markets Sector do not usually have direct influence over reducing the carbon footprint of the airlines they use. The sector strategy therefore focuses on reducing carbon emissions from office premises, offsetting carbon emissions from holidays and running pilot projects of more efficient ground transport operations. Below are some recent achievements in reducing carbon.

Travel Green
As part of their Travel Green programme, our Toronto student office (the head office of Educatours, Impact Educational Tours, Jumpstreet Tours, School Voyageurs and Young Explorers) offset 2,440 tonnes of carbon with Zerofootprint, a carbon offset provider specialising in the youth market. The cost of this offset was automatically included in the cost of their group coach tours. The programme also involves customers in environmental issues.

Starquest carbon offsets
Starquest has joined their largest customer, National Geographic Expeditions, in offsetting the emissions of their journeys. In the first half of 2008, they offset 8,000 tonnes of carbon through providers Clean Air, Cool Planet and Native Energy.

Carbon template
In the UK & Ireland Specialist Division, climate change champions have developed a template to measure the cost savings and environmental benefits of energy-saving initiatives. Once this template has been piloted in the UK, we will introduce it to the other divisions.

Destinations

Supplier management
Our goal is for all businesses in the Specialist & Emerging Markets Sector to use the Travelife Sustainability System with their suppliers. This year, our long haul UK brands were the first in the world to bring Travelife to Thai hoteliers. By December 2009, all directly contracted hotels will have registered on the system and undertaken the self assessment. This first step will create a baseline for supplier sustainability in the sector, which will enable us to set improvement targets.

Community programmes
Many businesses in our sector work hard to ensure their operations benefit local communities in their destinations. For example, Country Walkers supports the community and elementary school of Patacancha, Peru. In partnership with Travelers' Philanthropy, the company has funded two ‘good farming’ projects in small villages that form part of their Nepal and Egypt tours. In 2009, Country Walkers was awarded the National Geographic Adventure Best Companies on Earth award for the second year running.

Our People

In a sector where people are so passionate about travel, engaging our colleagues in sustainable development issues is vital, and we circulate a quarterly sustainable development newsletter to keep our colleagues informed of news from across the Group. The Specialist & Emerging Markets survey of September 2008 revealed:

• 64% of colleagues agreed that 'my business acts responsibly on environmental matters'
• 60% of colleagues agreed that 'my business acts responsibly in the local communities in which we operate'

Premises refurbishment
Our experience in the North American Student division shows that when colleagues are truly supportive, they begin to influence suppliers and customers. Eager to begin the move towards sustainability, in 2007 the Montreal student companies Jumpstreet Tours and Educatours came together under one roof. They chose a refurbished biscuit factory that was undergoing LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Silver certification. Its main innovative green features are:

• Large windows that allow natural light and ventilation, using 50% less air conditioning than traditional new buildings
• 80% of the materials used in the development were recycled from the original building
• Siting close to public transport links and equipped with a secure bicycle hangar
• Efficient plumbing fixtures, offering a 30% reduction in water consumption

This open-loft workspace inspired our colleagues to do more for sustainability, and the team has now produced a Sustainable Tourism Training Guide for tour leaders, helping motivate the rest of our Student division. For example, following this development, Educational Tours now uses 100% recycled white copier paper.

Our Customers

Our businesses often communicate their sustainability efforts to customers, through normal communications channels, specific campaigns and new sustainable products.

Helping children in Cambodia
In Spain, Ambassador Tours and Royal Vacaciones support a project aimed at fighting the sexual exploitation of children. In collaboration with Intervida, a Spanish NGO, they are funding a ‘safe house’ for abused children in Cambodia, helping to give them an opportunity to improve their lives.

World Care Fund
In the UK, Thomson Tailormade and Hayes & Jarvis offer their customers the opportunity to donate to the World Care Fund (see page 25 for details). We have trained customer-facing colleagues in how to talk about the donation, and details of the scheme are featured in brochures.

Volunteering holidays
In 2008, International Expeditions (IE) built trial water treatment plants for two villages in the Peruvian Amazon, funded a transportation system of school supplies to 70 villages and held educational workshops for teachers and parents. A pilot programme of environmental education is now also underway in Iquitos, a city in the Amazon rainforest where schoolchildren know little or nothing about the importance of the rainforest to the planet. Customers can visit the school, joining tours conducted by students. In September 2009, customers will be offered a new ‘voluntourism’ option where they will spend time volunteering in the schools.

Emerging markets

We are increasingly focusing on the emerging markets in Russia and CIS. Our UK project team is incorporating sustainability principles into business strategy development. We have outlined fuel efficiency criteria for aircraft and provided input into the hotel selection process to favour properties that meet the social and environmental criteria of the Travelife Sustainability System.