Inside Travel Group Sustainability

We are proud to be one of three tour operators in the UK to have achieved Travelife Partner accreditation. The Travelife standard is the leading sustainability certification scheme in the travel industry and supported by ABTA.

We chose to sign-up with Travelife because it was a systematic way to review our sustainability and responsible tourism procedures. We had to prove that our processes met more than 100 criteria relating to everything from our office management, to our product range to our HR policies. The reporting process has been spearheaded by our Sustainability Coordinator but has had a high level of engagement from many staff members – from our Office Manager, to our HR manager to Ground Staff Manager. It really was a collaborative effort and is something all staff members can all be proud to achieve.

We also wanted to offer staff opportunities to learn more about sustainability and responsible tourism. Our goal was for 20 members of staff to achieve the Sustainability Management certificate, but over 30 members of staff have already achieved this and over 50 other courses have been completed on topics such as animal welfare, child protection, sustainable guiding, staff engagement, environmental management and accessible travel. Many staff made use of their furlough time by completing these online courses and other ABTA online sustainability courses we offered them.

We have had to write many new policies for this accreditation including ones on our climate commitment, animal welfare and modern human slavery. In 2021, we are going to be encouraging our suppliers to follow our social and environmental policies via our Supplier Code of Conduct. We hope that this will have knock-on positive effects in our destinations. We are also updating our client documents to ensure they clients receive the information they need at the right time and feel empowered to make the right choices for them, their destination hosts and for the environment.

Our 2021 goals are to achieve Travelife Partner status for our US, Japan and Australian branches and aim to achieve Travelife Certification, the highest standard, for our UK branch.

In 2019 InsideAsia Tours chose to reduce single-use plastic as it was an important issue for our staff and our clients.

In our Bristol office we were able to reduce our landfill waste, including single-use plastics, by 60% during a two-month trial. We did this by changing our recycling company to Bristol Waste who recycle more materials. Visiting their plant to see how the materials are processed was a real highlight. Secondly, we changed our procurement to suppliers who use less plastic, such as buying milk in glass rather than plastic bottles. Thirdly, we engaged staff on the issue by running competitions, fundraising events and training about how to reduce it plastic usage. They really got behind the pledge and many have changed their habits at home due to the focus we’ve had on reducing waste in the office.

Many of our customers are shocked by the amount of single-use plastic used in Japan. It is the most common comment we receive from clients. This inspired us to improve our pre-trip information to tell clients about the issue before they arrive in the country. We recommend they bring their own reusable items and give them tips about how to recycle in Japan. We also created and sent out 2,000 small cards with the Japanese phrase for refusing a plastic bag on it. Finally, we sent a guide to our tour leaders about the environmental issues of plastic and how they can encourage small group tour clients to use reusable items and refuse plastic bags. We are continuing to work on how to reduce plastic on our tours.

We are pleased with the outcomes of our pledge. It has changed our internal business practices and other offices are now following suit. We hope that our pre-trip information and greater tour leader guidance means clients use less single-use plastic on their trip and feel empowered to politely refuse plastic bags in Japanese. Overall, we hope that by reducing our plastic waste we have helped to reduce the negative environmental effects of plastic.

For more information contact Sophie Walker

InsideJapan Tours are proud to have achieved our 2018 pledge by implementing a scheme where our clients who receive a transport card can send it to Second Harvest Japan (2HJ) so the remaining funds are donated to support people living in poverty.

We ran a trial by sending 500 envelopes to clients travelling between August and October 2018. 27% of our customers engaged with the scheme and we received 309 cards in return. From these cards we donated 315,566 yen (£2,254) to 2HJ which has provided 12,622 meals to people in need. We pledged to receive 1,000 cards in 12 months and to raise £3,000, so proportionally we have raised more money than our target.

The trial was delayed as it takes two months to arrange pre-paid addressed envelopes in Japan but now the scheme is fully up and running. To improve the efficiency of the scheme and to reduce our administration costs, 2HJ arrange the envelopes and remove funds from the cards. We are recommending 2HJ recommend this scheme to other tour operators in Japan as they can receive significant donations from these cards. We are also asking the supplier of the cards to set up a recycling scheme, so the physical cards do not go to waste.

Staff in all offices of ITG have been supportive of and excited about the benefits of the scheme. We are bridging closer ties with 2HJ by offering tour leaders volunteering opportunities with the charity. Charles McJilton, the director of 2HJ, has thanked to us on behalf of the beneficiaries of the Harvest Kitchen in Ueno Park, the food banks and disaster relief efforts in Japan. We have also received positive feedback from clients about the scheme.

Project PROTECT encouraged ITG staff to implement this scheme and offer an easy way for our clients to give back to the hospitable people of Japan. It has inspired us to set-up a Sustainability Committee in the Bristol office and to look at other ways we can support charities and reduce waste. We aim to achieve more projects like this in the years to come!