This is why, as we emerge bruised and battered from the Covid era, we’re launching the first Fairer Travel Week, in association with the Spanish Tourist Board, today which will run over 4-8 July putting issues of sustainability and diversity front and centre.

There’s no doubt these issues have already become a much clearer priority for the industry, as exclusive research released later this week to mark Fairer Travel Week will underline. At the recent Institute of Travel and Tourism conference in Istanbul, these issues ran as an undercurrent through most of the sessions – which certainly wasn’t something true of the last overseas ITT conference in 2019.

I had a similar experience meeting the new TTG 30 Under 30 for the first time last week. As they told their life stories to date, I was fascinated to hear how many of them mentioned sustainability and diversity as part of their current job role, or as something they simply felt passionate about and wanted to have an impact on in their careers.

Highlights of TTG’s first Fairer Travel Week include:

• A celebration of the very best young people in travel, with the announcement today (4 July) of the all-new TTG 30 Under 30 in the 10th anniversary year of the scheme;
• On Tuesday (5 July), the latest TTG Travel Pride event at a rooftop venue in London, including the announcement of the latest group of Travel Pride Champions rewarded for pushing diversity within their businesses;
• The first Sustainable Travel Showcase will take place on Wednesday (6 July) – an online event for travel agents, connecting them with seven travel suppliers pushing sustainability hard within their businesses;
• The Fairer Travel Sustainability Forum takes place on Thursday (7 July) at the offices of PwC on London’s Embankment, featuring practical sessions and speakers from inside and outside of travel;
• Closing the week, the Fairer Travel Diversity Forum will take place at the same venue on Friday (8 July), offering a similar mix of practical workshops and positive steps forward

Tickets for the Fairer Travel Sustainability Forum are available here, and the Fairer Travel Diversity Forum here.

Join the movement

Travel has already come a long way; most businesses have moved on from using issues of sustainability and diversity as PR exercises, with "greenwashing" and virtue signalling now regularly called out – the many practical examples of positive action that will be highlighted this week should underline that.

These are also issues that TTG Media has been putting its own house in order on through working with Terraverde Sustainability on our own carbon footprint and signing up to the Glasgow Declaration, as well as through discussions with a diversity consultancy on our own recruitment policies.

We thank all the partners we work with, especially the Spanish Tourist Board and our supporting partners PwC and Terraverde, for making this this week of events possible.

TTG Media pledges that we will continue to push for and record these advances together. Just as during the pandemic, it’s only together that we will make the difference, after all. Let’s all join the movement for Fairer Travel.

Dan Pearce is CEO of TTG Media.