ICYMI, today is World Tourism Day!

And The Travel Corporation is celebrating with new sustainability measures and responsible travel initiatives.

In fact, they’re celebrating 10 years of The TreadRight Foundation, the not-for-profit organisation at the heart of TTC’s commitment to making tourism a force for positive change around the world.

The foundation has helped support more than 50 sustainable tourism projects around the world, and TTC chief executive Brett Tollman said it’s just the beginning.

“We are not simply united as a family of brands, we are also united by our shared drive to help make the world a better place. It’s a philosophy that we’ve worked hard to ensure is woven throughout all that we do,” he said.

“From supporting and empowering the local communities we visit to raising awareness around some of the world’s most at-risk wildlife populations and contributing to the overall health of the planet, TreadRight has been instrumental in powering TTC’s continuing sustainability journey.”

To help celebrate 10 years of making travel matter, TreadRight and TTC have released a new #MakeTravelMatter video highlighting the initiatives as well as organisation and expert partners – including TreadRight Ambassador Céline Cousteau and Steering Committee Chair Costas Christ – while underscoring the role each pillar plays in the organisation’s mission.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wOjVquvPW4&feature=youtu.be

Among the recent social responsibility initiatives introduced is an e-documents program delivered in partnership with One Tree Planted, a leading not-for-profit focused on global reforestation. Through the program, for every TTC guest that opts to receive e-documents rather than printed materials, One Tree Planted will plant a tree in a destination of their choosing. To date, the initiative has seen One Tree Planted plant more than 20,000 trees on behalf of TTC and their guests.

TreadRight has also worked with TTC in its commitment to eliminate all avoidable single-use plastics across all operations by 2022. The commitment was introduced with an immediate ban of more than 60 types of single-use plastic items such as straws, coffee stirrers, water bottles, plastic bags, and cutlery from TTC’s 30-plus offices around the world.

This can also be seen within TTC’s youth brand, Contiki, who have gone green in recent years. Plastic straws and non-ecological equipment have been banned from all of its operations and plastic bin liners have been replaced with biodegradable liners.

However, 771,800 Aussies travel to Europe every year and each traveller uses an average of three plastic bottles each day. If the average trip is 14 days, that’s over 32 million empty plastic bottles that end up as landfill! Every. Year. The water is also only safe to drink in 58 per cent of European countries – meaning that a reusable water bottle can sometimes be impossible.

So, to spread awareness for World Tourism Day, Contiki has introduced the Contiki Cares Bottle – made from 100 per cent recycled material, it’s built-in filtration system allows guests to drink safe tap water from anywhere in the world! And yes, we’re serious.

This sleek silicone-based water bottle is not only collapsible to make it super easy to travel with, but it also comes with an amazing removable and portable filtration system when travelling to countries with unsafe drinking water.

And that means that less plastic will end up in the world’s oceans and on beaches.

Another of TTC’s family of brands, Trafalgar, is continuing its beach clean-up efforts globally, as part of its JoinTrafalgar initiative to ensure that travel today will sustain tomorrow.

Following the success of the Australian beach clean-up at the Hermitage Bay Foreshore in Vaucluse earlier this month, where the Trafalgar team covered two kilometres of shore as part of its annual conference, CEO Gavin Tollman pledged to make this a global initiative.

“The positive impact on the team and sense of community we felt together was astounding. Clearing one of Australia’s greatest treasures, it’s beaches, was something small we could do to give back to this incredibly beautiful country and this is just the beginning. It is here at Hermitage Bay, we knew, we had much more work to do,” he said.

Last week Trafalgar Partnered with Flight Centre and Sustainable Coastlines in New Zealand to clean up Evans Bay in Wellington, which was riddled with small plastics. Together, the team collected eight bags of rubbish from its pristine coastline.

And we think that’s something worth celebrating – especially on National Tourism Day.