Homeworker Andrea Smith has planted five trees on her farm for TTC Tour Brands after making a sustainability pledge at the Association of Touring and Adventure Suppliers (Atas) conference. TTC are a prominent global player in the travel and tourism industry, are dedicated to implementing a comprehensive sustainability strategy. This strategy aims to decrease its environmental impact and advocate for responsible travel across its portfolio of brands, including Luxury Gold, Insight Vacations, Trafalgar, Costsaver, and Contiki.
The pledge was given at the ATAS conference in Liverpool in October. TTC had a stand and asked what sustainability pledge you would make them in return for winning a £5000 voucher towards one of their holidays.
They have 5 brands, Costsaver Tours, Contiki, Insight, Luxury Gold and Trafalgar, so I pledged to plant a tree per brand and it won. Alice and Freya from TTC came to the farm on 5th March to see/ help plant the trees. I’ve opted to take a Luxury Gold tour to India in April.
Andrea Smith
Smith remembered a TTC Tour Brands competition at the Atas conference in October, and stated that this was her inspiration for the pledge.
They were asking people to give a pledge about what they would do to make themselves more sustainable, for many years, my family have been interested in nature and conservation as we are wildlife mad and go on safari whenever we can. Since taking on our smallholding four years ago, in the Peak District National Park, we have become much more aware of the impact we are having on the environment. We try to live more sustainably, using only environmentally friendly cleaning products sourced from our local village community shop. We make our own compost here – with a little help from the pigs – to put on our home-grown fruit and veg which we share with our holiday-let guests.
Andrea Smith
Alice Boden, UK & Europe marketing executive at TTC Tour Brands, who visited the farm in March, stated this was to help plant the trees and see their sustainability pledge in action.
Boden spoke about how during the Atas conference in in Liverpool, agents could place their own pledges on a piece of recycled paper and place them on a ‘sustainability tree.’
Boden stated that they wanted agents to really think about how they could make a difference to their offices, homes and general lifestyle.
The winner would win a voucher towards an itinerary of their choice with Contiki, Costsaver, Trafalgar, Insight Vacations or Luxury Gold. Everyone got involved with some fantastic entries, such as banning single-use water bottles from their shops and some were ensuring they would be turning lights off in unused rooms, but we felt that Andrea’s submission was the worthy winner because it was something that would be tangible and we could follow up.
Alice Boden
Claire Brighton, the Atas director, was also pleased to see this pledge come together at Andrea Smith’s smallholding. Where she also has fifteen rescued sheep, two rescued goats, two pigs, five hens and two horses.
I was delighted to see the TTC Tour Brands competition for sustainability pledges at last year’s conference – and it’s great to now see the results, with those trees being planted at Andrea’s smallholding. It all ties in very well with the operator’s responsible tourism initiatives and our own sustainability hub too.
Claire Brighton
