Travelyst – a charity founded by Prince Harry – has set its sights on improving the quality of sustainability certification across the travel and tourism industry, to make choosing greener travel easier.
The travel charity was founded by the Duke of Sussex in 2019 and is supported by some of the biggest brands in travel, such as Booking.com, Expedia Group, Skyscanner, and Tripadvisor.
As part of its most recent fee-free initiative, Travelyst will vet over 100 tourism-focused global certification bodies to assess whether they can be displayed on its partner platforms, ultimately making it easier for consumers to choose based on this criteria.
The vetting comes as research published by Booking.com reveals that 65% of travellers would feel better about staying in accommodation if they knew it had a sustainability certification.
Bodies will be assessed on three main criteria assessment points, including whether certification processes include a third-party audit of claimed sustainable practices, and ensuring that the standard upon which the certification is based is publicly available.
The third point focuses on the standard evaluating the impact of social, economic, and environmental factors, among others, as encompassed within – but not restricted – to the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
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For consistency, the criteria and assessments will be validated by Travelyst’s independent advisory group.
Travelyst’s head of strategy and impact Polly Lomas said: “Travelyst aims to bring sustainability information to the mainstream to help people make better travel choices”.
“People want to travel more sustainably and that all starts with having access to clear, consistent and credible information at scale.”
“Creating a master list of certification bodies meeting the Travelyst criteria will help to improve the credibility of sustainability information in the accommodation sector, and credibility is key to driving trust.”
