Intrepid Travel's Chief Marketing Officer Hazel McGuire and The Resilience Project Chief Executive Dr Angela Huston Gold said authentic storytelling and local voices will become increasingly important as travellers demand greater transparency around responsible tourism.

For McGuire, that challenge has become more pressing as regulation around environmental claims tightens. Reflecting on Intrepid's response to an Advertising Standards Authority ruling three years ago over claims that one of its Egypt tours was "good for the planet", McGuire said the company had deliberately shifted away from broad sustainability messaging towards stories travellers "actually remember".

Those stories, which include female porters breaking into a traditionally male profession in Peru and their Pink City Rickshaw initiative in Jaipur, have resulted in an engagement rise of 17% quarter-on-quarter across Intrepid's social media, according to McGuire.

"If somebody sticks up a billboard that talks about carbon emissions and percentages of money staying in communities, honestly, I'm walking straight past it," she said. "What people will remember is the story."

McGuire encouraged businesses not to fear greenwashing to the point of refusing to speak about their sustainability initiatives – what she called "greenhushing". "We always talk about progress over perfection," she said. "We're far from getting everything right, but we believe the stories are worth telling now."

Dean Rossiter

That focus on people over metrics was echoed by Huston Gold, who argued that travel businesses also need to recognise the emotional impact climate change is already having on customers and employees.

Drawing on the emerging field of climate psychology, she said emotions such as fear, guilt, frustration and grief are increasingly shaping how people think about travel and sustainability. "A little bit of climate anxiety is a good thing," she said. "It means we care enough to do something."

Rather than ignoring those emotions, businesses should create space for honest conversations, she argued, adding that "engaging honestly with it can be a source of loyalty, whether that's with clients or team members", while warning climate anxiety and burnout can cause people to disengage if left unaddressed.

Both speakers also urged travel businesses to put local communities at the centre of their sustainability narratives.

McGuire said destinations should shape how their own stories are told, while Huston Gold said the industry needed to create greater connection between travellers and destinations.

Huston Gold encouraged businesses to "showcase conversations with people and communities who are impacted by travel", adding that communities should feel "they're being listened to, not managed as a risk or a problem".