In 2005 travel and tourism generated 3.6 per cent of global GDP and 2.8 per cent of employment. Taking into account related industries, this equates to 10 per cent of GDP, effectively making it the world’s largest industry, ahead of oil and the automotive business.

First Choice Holidays plc serves eight million holidaymakers every year, operating from 17 markets to more than 200 countries and islands, all with their own rich and diverse cultures and ecosystems.

From 2002 we began to analyse our environmental and social impacts, partly out of self-interest (we depend on the sustainability of the communities in which we operate), but also in response to challenges raised by stakeholders – from investors to Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).

Our assessment acknowledged the scale of tourism’s use of natural resources; its impact on biodiversity and waste; its largely positive socio-economic contribution in terms of wealth, employment and stimulation of local enterprise; but also the negative effects of tourists’ behaviour and over-development.

Much of a tour operator’s impact on destinations is indirect – via overseas hotels and other accommodation owned and managed by suppliers. Encouraging them to work responsibly is best approached as an industry.

With the Federation of Tour Operators (representing the UK’s largest travel companies) and many other tourism stakeholders, First Choice has developed supplier sustainability guidelines covering best-practice environmental and employee management, and local sourcing of products.
Having tested them during the first half of 2006, we will work to implement them with key suppliers during the second half of the year. We are also developing environmental guidelines to influence the design and construction of new hotel builds we are involved with.

It is also critical customers are made aware of the steps being taken to ensure the impacts of their holiday are positive.

Although the majority do not actively demand holidays that benefit local people and the environment, research shows 30 per cent are ‘concerned’ about these issues.

First Choice played an active role in the creation and subsequent work of the Travel Foundation, a charity set up with support from the UK outbound-travel industry, NGOs and government to fund research, tools and projects to make tourism more sustainable.

The foundation has already initiated a range of projects to stimulate supply of local products (agriculture and crafts), education and environmental protection in holiday resorts.

But the sustainability of tourism is hugely affected by infrastructures and legislative frameworks determined by destination governments, where the UK industry has limited direct influence. We would welcome stronger links between industry, and development work by the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in destinations of mutual interest and influence.

For us, aviation remains the only practicable way to take customers on holiday. Owning an airline makes strong business sense, but also means, with 30,000 flights every year, we burn 380,000 tonnes of fuel and generate up to 1.2 million tonnes of CO2, as well as other pollutants.

To reduce these impacts, we became a founder signatory of Sustainable Aviation, a strategy to minimise the industry’s long-term impacts on the environment. Like many other UK airlines, we introduced measures to help cut emissions, noise and waste.

A fuel-efficiency policy includes flying aircraft at slower speeds and using a single engine to taxi. Pilots are trained to fly on noise-preferential routes and use a continuous-descent approach technique, to minimise noise and emissions. Reducing weight on-board reduces fuel use; agreement on minimum necessary crew baggage, catering and engineering equipment cut our fuel bill last year.

The introduction of the Boeing 787 will help airlines take the next major step in reducing environmental impact. It promises to use 20 per cent less fuel, generate 20 per cent lower emissions and create a noise footprint up to 200 per cent quieter than current-generation mid-sized jets – strong considerations in our choice of the aircraft to replace our current long-haul fleet from 2009.

But these benefits will only deliver results if combined with measures to control overall levels of greenhouse gas emissions, and therefore in principle we support the future integration of aviation into the European emissions trading scheme.

We encourage our industry to put sustainability at the top of its agenda, enabling us all to explore and enjoy our rich and diverse planet now and in the future.