Thomson and First Choice are upping their green credentials with the launch of an umbrella sustainable tourism brand.

Holidays Forever forms part of the Travel Foundation’s Make Holidays Greener Week – a consumer campaign to encourage holidaymakers to take simple steps to help the environment and local community in the destinations they visit.

As part of the Holidays Forever initiative, both Thomson and First Choice have made 20 commitments for greener holidays. These include reducing the carbon emissions from the TUI Travel airlines by 6 percent by 2014 and aiming to recycle 30 percent of the cans it issues.

The Holidays Forever message about sustainable tourism will be featured in the operators’ brochures and there will be microsites for both brands to give customers more information.

The brand will be also be used to raise awareness of sustainable tourism amongst company employees.

Jane Ashton, Tui Travel’s head of sustainable development, says: “Whilst we are proud of the efforts we have made to date, we recognise that we are still at the start of our sustainability journey.”

“We appreciate our holidays have an impact on the environment and the people who live and work in our destinations across the planet. With Holidays Forever we are making 20 commitments to do what we can to drive real change.” 

The launch follows research that shows customers are more receptive to messages about the environment than they were five years ago. In a poll carried out by Clicktools completed by 830 customers in January, 83 percent of respondents said that they appreciate advice form a tour operator on how to make their holiday more environmentally and socially responsible when they’re abroad.