Travel companies are being encouraged to adopt the reporting of environmental, social and governance issues so that the sector can be appropriately evaluated in terms of its contributions to both the economy and its impacts on environmental and social issues.

Publicly reporting on issues relating to sustainability, corporate responsibility, or environmental, social and governance is a method by which companies demonstrate a commitment to transparency, and management approaches to proactively address externalities are acknowledged and advanced.

ESG reporting has developed over the course of three decades through various guises, including Corporate Social Responsibility and is now a mainstream platform for organisations communicate with and engage stakeholders.

ESG reporting is now the norm among the largest companies across most countries and is growing in prevalence to soon encompass the majority of business across all sectors.

To help WTTC members and others report on ESG issues, WTTC has prepared a wide-ranging analysis to outline the full spectrum of ESG reporting’s background, concepts, terminology, key entities and available resources.

“Environmental, Social & Governance reporting in Travel & Tourism: Trends, Outlook and Guidance”, provides a broad overview of ESG reporting’s history and current status; the state of ESG reporting within tourism; and tailored guidance for steps companies can take to begin or improve their reporting.

WTTC president David Scowsill explained: “For 25 years WTTC has worked to raise the status of our sector and to benchmark its contribution against others.

“We now know that our sector contributes almost ten per cent of world GDP and one in eleven of all jobs on the planet, but such economic importance must be accompanied by responsibility in the way we run our businesses and how we tell that story.

“As our sector continues to expand, we need to ensure that this growth is sustainable and inclusive.

“ESG reporting is an important tool in monitoring and communicating how we achieve this.

“We encourage tourism companies to either begin to report on ESG issues or to take steps to improve the work they have already started.”