Homeworking group Inspire has teamed up with Travel Neutral, a newsletter service that promotes carbon neutral holidays.
The company was launched by Carla Laidler, who has previously worked for several travel brands including Low Cost Holidays, Planet Cruise and Imagine Cruising.
She says she saw a gap in the market for a travel business to market carbon neutral travel deals to ‘planet-conscious consumers’ and at the same time ‘offer travel industry tour operators and agents a dedicated distribution channel to this growing segment of the market’.
So far, 85,000 people have signed up to receive the Travel Neutral newsletter, 98% of whom, when surveyed, said they would take at least of one overseas holiday this year, and 40% looking to take at least two.
Inspire Group MD Lisa Henning said: “We are delighted to be working with Travel Neutral on this ground-breaking initiative, which represents the first step in our sustainable travel journey.
“We realise only too well that there is a growing number of consumers who are looking to off-set their cardon footprint when going on holiday and we want to be at the forefront of providing this service.”
Laidler added: “There is increasing pressure on the UK travel industry to offer planet-conscious consumers sustainable travel opportunities, and right now there isn’t a dedicated brand that can do this.
“The holidays that we will market through our website and subscriber-based newsletter will offer only carbon neutral holidays to top travel destinations, from trusted travel agents and operators.”
Travel Neutral said it is committed to achieving 100% carbon neutrality through its own work and through its advertised products.
Agents will be able to calculate the carbon footprint of flights, hotels, cruises, trains and more using a calculator and service provided by Travel Neutral’s partner CarbonITe.
The cost of the offsetting will be used to fund carbon-neutralising projects.
Travel Neutral and Inspire will begin testing consumer offers in May, after which Travel Neutral will start to offer agent/operator advertising opportunities.
