Green Travel Initiative Launch by Prince Harry
The Duke of Sussex is putting his popularity as a member of the British royal family behind a consortium devoted to sustainability in tourism.
Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex , announced on Tuesday in Amsterdam, will lead a global sustainable travel initiative to bring companies, consumers and communities together.
The initiative, called Travalyst, has been in the works for three years, Kensington Palace said. The duke started conversations with the travel industry in 2017, and the first official partnership meeting took place in January with a group of travel companies including Booking.com, Ctrip, Skyscanner, TripAdvisor and Visa with expectations of making the tourism industry with more environmental responsibility.
The Duke said on Tuesday that “Our world is facing environmental challenges of unprecedented scope and scale,”. “From deforestation and the loss of biodiversity, to ocean plastics and hunting animals illegally, sometimes the problems can seem too big to fix. These human-caused challenges often need a huge system, shifting to make a enough impact significantly.”
Travalyst comes at a time when airlines and cruise companies, along with restaurant and hotel companies, are dealing with how to make the travel industry with little harm to the environment. It also comes weeks after the duke and his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, came under fire for traveling on private jets, which have a greater relative carbon impact than commercial planes. The duke flew commercial to Amsterdam.
The syndicate aims to educate people about sustainable travel, overtourism and make it easier for them to understand whether their own travels are helping or hurting the planet and who is benefiting from travel dollars.
“Our priority is to ensure sustainability across the entire travel experience,” said Gillian Tans, Booking.com’s chairwoman. “Another goal is how to minimize the environmental footprint of travel, and the other goal is to protect and preserve local environments, welfare and cultural heritage and help to improve the welfare of local people for the longer term.”
