Our goal is to make every TUI holiday more sustainable, by benefiting more local people and making sure environmental considerations are a top priority.

Experience the difference
Our TUI Destination Experiences business grew significantly last year. By the end of 2018, we had acquired Hotelbeds Destination Management business and the technology platform specialist Musement. TUI Destination Experiences now has 9,000 employees across 49 countries, offering 14 million customers a broad product portfolio of high-quality destination experiences such as excursions, activities, tours, transfers and guest service.

Our Make a Difference commitment means we want to make sure that growth is responsible. Sustainability has been at the forefront of our destination services business and we’ve made significant progress, including offering more sustainable excursions, conducting animal welfare audits and engaging colleagues on sustainability. In 2019, we will work with the newly acquired businesses to align standards and processes with TUI Group’s sustainability approach.

TUI Tours are part of a new concept that puts sustainability front and centre of the visitor experience. TUI Tours are multiday tours that include flights, hotels, experiences and a tour guide to experience different countries and really connect with the area and people. From spring 2019, cultural roundtrips in Italy, safaris in South Africa, trekking in Peru, and tours of the American West Coast will be conducted by “glocal guides” – global locals with in-depth knowledge of the area and who speak the customers’ language.

Since October 2018, a dedicated resource in the TUI Tours team has been integrating sustainability processes into the programme. All guides must complete the TUI Tours academy through e-learning and face-to-face training. The modules incorporate a number of sustainability elements including animal welfare, human rights, child protection, the TUI Care Foundation, an understanding of why guests value sustainability and its importance to tourism, and how to encourage practical measures like reducing plastic.

TUI Tours will need to follow a checklist of sustainability criteria. Each one will feature an interactive and engaging customer highlight, such as a home-stay, language exchange or workshop. In partnership with the TUI Care Foundation, tours will visit projects like the Pikala biking project in Marrakesh, which empowers young females and offers employment for young Moroccans. TUI Tours will include a donation to the TUI Care Foundation, helping to support local projects around the world.

Thriving destinations benefit customers and local communities alike. Through excursions, our customers discover new places and contribute to the local economy. Sustainability clauses must be part of excursion concepts and are part of all excursion contracts.

Since 2014, TUI Collection excursions have promoted unique, authentic and responsible activities, now offered by most of our tour operators. Each TUI Collection excursion must be exclusive to TUI and meet specific criteria for sustainability, demonstrating that it benefits local people and minimises environmental impact. In 2018, our customers went on 1,177,000 TUI Collection excursions – up by 15 % from 2017 – and 286 excursions were offered in 66 destinations. Since 2015, TUI Collection has grown by 135 % and over 3.5 million excursions have been delivered.

For the fifth consecutive year, our Destination Experience colleagues held a Big Holiday Beach Clean campaign, asking teams to organise a beach clean in their local areas. It supports the ABTA-led ‘Make Holidays Greener’ campaign to keep destinations clean for future guests. In 2018, over 1,400 colleagues and customers collected almost 4,500 kg of rubbish, covering more than 90 km of beach. In total, 52 beaches in 17 countries benefited from the effort. In the past five years, over 250 beach cleans have been held, engaging over 6,600 people and covering over 300 km of coast line. Over 25,000 kg of rubbish have been removed.