Our views on the climate crisis

As a company selling responsible holidays, we know that travel can create many benefits to local communities and help with the conservation of natural and cultural heritage. However, it is not possible to ignore the fact that we are faced with a global climate emergency and that travel and tourism is a significant contributing emissions factor.

We believe we must fly less and we were the first travel company to say this. We need to travel more responsibly and to protect the environment. We need to act urgently to tackle the rising effects of greenhouse gas emissions from our holidays, caused by flying in particular as well as other components of our trips such as the energy used in the places we stay as well as the food we eat.

As a result we have: launched a manifesto specifically looking at aviation and the climate crisis; taken an active stance in not supporting carbon offsetting; created low carbon, rail and flight free holiday sections; conducted a pioneering carbon-labelling study of holidays with Professor Stefan Gössling of Lund University and Dr Ya-Yen Sun of the University of Queensland; and have continued to critique and evaluate wider travel industry issues as they arise in order to inform our own policies.

We don't claim to have all the answers - the climate crisis is a complex issue - but we will continue to address and evaluate our practices in the context of the climate emergency. We share below our research, findings, activism and views to date.

Photo credits: [Carbon offsetting: Gralo] [Low emissions planes and electrofuels: Matti Blume] [The future of cruise holidays: Antti T. Nissinen] [Say no to fake snow: Guttorm Flatabo] [No to the Heathrow expansion: Mariordo] [The end of cheap flights: Colin Brown Photography]