Take Action - Make a Commitment

What do we mean by “commitment?”

A commitment is a pledge to take action, make a change, or drive an initiative forward that will make a positive impact for the people and places of travel. We recommend prioritizing areas aligned with your team's passions that can easily be folded into your business strategy. We have found that the best commitments are:

1. Inspired by what you are passionate about or something you recently learned

2. New commitments that you or you company haven’t already decided to do

3. SMART, ie. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound. If you are unfamiliar with this approach, this guide can help you write a SMART goal.

Next Steps

Tourism Cares can connect you to partners and resources that you need to achieve your commitment. Some options are only available to Tourism Cares members. Visit here if you aren’t already a member and wish to learn more. Here are some suggested immediate next steps: 

• Sign-up to join a future Tourism Cares Sustainability Workshop Series Cohort (for organization leadership)

• Check your inbox for personalized consultation outreach from Tourism Cares (if you selected “Yes” in the form above)

• Book a Sustainability Help Desk Appointment (available to members)

• Utilize the Meaningful Travel Platform, a digital training resource for the travel trade featuring research, original content, and education around best practices in sustainability and meaningful travel.

• Check out The Sustainability Sample Strategy, developed in partnership with USTOA, is a one-stop shop targeted at organization leaders who wanted to get started building a sustainability program and want to know what to do first and where to go from there. (Coming soon - available to Tourism Cares members and USTOA members)

Suggested timeframe: two months

• Add one Meaningful Travel Map Impact Partner into your product(s).

• Attend two live or recorded webinars on climate action, community tourism, Indigenous tourism, or a similar topic and share what you’ve learned with a network of coworkers

• Estimate the carbon footprint of your product for one week of operations (or whatever time frame works best for you) and communicate that measurement to the leadership in your organization

• Complete the training on the Tourism Cares Meaningful Travel Platform

• Study the WTTC material about Nature Positive Travel & Tourism and share a few takeaways on your social media or with colleagues 

Suggested timeframe: three months

• Complete a sustainability stakeholder mapping project, gathering data about how your policies do or do not impact customers, local residents, communities in travel destinations, your suppliers and partners, employees, etc.

• Put together a sustainability/impact team within your organization and meet to start planning, measuring and goal setting

• Sign the Glasgow Declaration (halve emissions by 2030, net zero by 2050) and begin climate action planning

• Create a strategy to systematically include meaningful travel product in your tours (using the Guide to Meaningful Travel Product, available to Tourism Cares members)

• Add five Tourism Cares Meaningful Travel Map Impact Partners into your products

• Complete the BCorp Assessment for your organization

• Train staff on Disability Inclusion and Accessibility

Suggested timeframe: six months to a year

• Commit to Net Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 2030, aligned with Science Based Targets initiative

• Roll out a company-wide policy on Indigenous Tourism 

• Create and employ a vendor sourcing strategy that includes environmental and social impact assessment and goals

• Eliminate single-use plastics and extraneous paper from your product offerings and business operations

• If you sell wildlife experiences, partner with organizations that are committed to conservation and that align with animal welfare best practices

• Design and offer a product that specifically caters to an underrepresented community

• Adopt an Ethical Marketing policy that includes addressing diversity and inclusion through your marketing