The Travel Corporation: Making Travel Matter
The Travel Corporation is Earth-Friendly Year Round
Earth Day may be over, but some conscientious companies follow earth-friendly policies year round. Travel Corporation’s non-profit foundation, The TreadRight Foundation, celebrated the earth when they recently announced that single-use plastic water bottles will no longer be available on TTC brands’ trips. This includes Trafalgar, Insight Vacations, Luxury Gold, Costsaver, Brendan Vacations, Contiki, AAT Kings and Inspiring Journeys.
This announcement marked an important next step in a policy aimed at eliminating all non-essential single-use plastics across our all Travel Corporation operations by 2022, said Brett Tollman, Chief Executive, TTC and founder of The TreadRight Foundation.
Initiatives like this are critical if the world’s oceans are to be saved. According to a report by the World Economic Forum, if nothing is done to push back against the deluge of plastics currently overwhelming our oceans there could be more plastic in the oceans than fish by 2050.
Elimination of Plastic Use
In 2018 TTC banned more than 60 types of single-use plastic items from its 40 global offices across its portfolio of brands.
With 1.9 million travelers annually across the group, it is estimated that TTC’s effort has the potential to help eliminate the use of millions of plastic water bottles annually.
Both The Red Carnation Hotel Collection and Uniworld plan to eradicate all single-use plastics by 2022
Red Carnation Hotel Collection has discontinued a number of plastic items at all of their 17 (soon to be 20) boutique hotels, including drinking straws which have been replaced with either recycled paper, stainless steel or other materials; takeaway coffee cups and lids, which have been replaced with compostable paper and corn starch versions; plastic cups in staff canteens; and single-use butter and jam portions.
Red Carnation’s European hotels already have recycling schemes in place for both toiletry bottles and soaps, whereby they are collected and reused by various charitable groups. For example, The Egerton House Hotel in London donates all partially-used toiletry items such as soap, shampoo and lotion to the Clean Conscience charity, which recycles them and gives them to organizations in need.
At The Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa in Cape Town, bamboo and cardboard straws have replaced plastic ones. And staff members and residents at The Twelve Apostles Hotel and Spa, The Oyster Box, and The Chesterfield Palm Beach can participate in weekly or monthly beach cleanups.
Uniworld, the river cruise leader, has already eliminated all straws & water bottles from their vessels, decreased their chemical waste by 80%, and have worked alongside their suppliers to avoid plastic wrappings on all their goods.
Wildlife Protection & Preservation
As The TreadRight Foundation’s mission includes helping safeguard the planet, wildlife and people for generations to come, it has developed wildlife preservation initiatives. In the last four years alone, poaching has destroyed an estimated 12 per cent of the rhino population
TreadRight supports WildLife SOS on their #refusetoride campaign in India, which is home to more than 60% of the world’s remaining elephant population. All TTC brands have joined this campaign—such as African Travel, Inc. and Lion World Travel.
The TTC Brand, African Travel, Inc., helps sustain wildlife with sustainable travel itineraries. For example, a visit to Shamwari Game Reserve in South Africa will directly help rhino conservation. African Travel, Inc., will be donating $50 per couple towards the building of a rhino boma. Guests can visit the Sheldrick elephant orphanage where they get the chance to experience these fascinating animals up close.
In 2015, Lion World Travel and the TreadRight Foundation, helped purchase the “Bat Hawk” in support of the Wilderness Foundation Africa. The Bat Hawk is a South African-made light sport aircraft used to patrol the vast Shamwari Game Reserve to monitor threatened wildlife, with a special focus on rhinos. The Bat Hawk was designed with conservation and aerial wildlife patrol as its main functions. When guests book the Tented Safari in Style trip, Lion World will make a donation to help build a new rhino section of the Rehabilitation Centre at Shamwari. This area will be custom made to care for orphaned and injured rhino calves with the goal to re-introduce them to the wild once they are healthy.
Economic Empowerment
The artisan sector is the second largest employer in the developing world, after agriculture, with artisan goods representing a $32 billion a year industry.
TreadRight works with partner the Alliance for Artisan Enterprise (86% of members are women), to encourage economic empowerment through support of artisans.
Trafalgar visits Iraq Al Amir Women’s Cooperative, which has trained more than 150 local artisans.
Guests on an Insight Vacations journey to Israel and Jordan also have the incredible opportunity to visit the Iraq Al-Amir Women’s Cooperative to experience firsthand the preservation of local heritage.
On Luxury Gold’s Imperial Rajasthan journey, guests can join a life-changing ME to WE Culturally Immersive Experience, with the opportunity to contribute to a sustainability project in a local village.
On African Travel, Inc.’s ME to WE Kenya trip, guests can contribute to African Travel, Inc.’s charity partner’s adopt-a-village development model by helping to build a new school. They will also learn about how ME to WE’s charity partner and its newest project, the Baraka Health Centre, is enhancing community life. The Baraka clinic serves over 30,000 community members, promoting healthy living and providing preventative, curative and rehabilitative services to the most vulnerable segments of the Kenyan population.
About The TreadRight Foundation
Created as a joint initiative between The Travel Corporation’s (TTC) family of brands, The TreadRight Foundation is a not-for-profit working to help safeguard the planet, wildlife & people for generations to come. The Foundation’s guiding principle is to encourage sustainable tourism development through conservation, leadership and support for communities. To date, TreadRight has supported some 50 sustainable tourism projects worldwide.
