Travel & tourism’s social impact and how to build back better for animals

As the “build back bet­ter” buzz con­tin­ues, social impact and com­mu­nic­a­tions spe­cial­ist Helen Ush­er wants travel & tour­ism stake­hold­ers to factor anim­al wel­fare into their plans. In this “Good Tour­ism” Insight Ms Ush­er sug­gests how we might do just that.

This is a time of unpre­ced­en­ted glob­al crisis for the tour­ism sec­tor; a time we switch to sur­viv­al mode, to save our jobs, and our industry.

So why do anim­als mat­ter so much right now? 

Accord­ing to Busi­ness for Nature, more than half of the world’s GDP is reli­ant upon nature, and, through unsus­tain­able sup­ply chains, we are draw­ing away more than can be replen­ished. It is this over-exploit­a­tion of our nat­ur­al resources that has led to pre­vi­ous pan­dem­ics, where the pro­tect­ive bar­ri­er of nature has been crossed. The cur­rent coronavir­us pan­dem­ic is our latest wake up call.

Against the back­drop of the cur­rent cli­mate, let’s look at what travel busi­nesses can do right now to surge forth, demon­strate pos­it­ive social impact, and become a force for good as part of our resur­gence strategy.

What is social impact?

Social impact is defined as a ‘sig­ni­fic­ant, pos­it­ive change that addresses a press­ing social chal­lenge’. In the words of Simon Sinek, Brit­ish-Amer­ic­an author and social impact expert: “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

How does social impact relate to travel & tourism?

Sinek’s quote is true of all indus­tries, but right now, with our sec­tor per­haps the most hit from the cur­rent pan­dem­ic, and with con­sumer trust in travel lower than ever before, there is no more urgent time to build back trust in travel! One proven way to achieve this is to demon­strate pos­it­ive and tan­gible actions to show you are a brand that cares.

How do animals relate to travel & tourism?

Anim­al and nature pro­tec­tion is a huge top­ic of import­ance with­in tourism:

• 60% of glob­al hol­i­day exper­i­ences involve wild­life (95% in Asia Pacific) (Com­Res sur­vey 2017)
• 90% of hol­i­day­makers believe that tour oper­at­ors should take anim­al wel­fare ser­i­ously (Thomas Cook 2019)

With the cur­rent pan­dem­ic shin­ing a blind­ing light on the need to rethink our rela­tion­ship with nature, it’s not hard to see why we must take great­er respons­ib­il­ity, right now.

What can travel & tourism do to build back better for animals?

So, what steps can travel busi­nesses take to take stock, hit reset, and set new inten­tions for anim­al pro­tec­tion when lock­downs ease and travel resumes?

• Review and revital­ise your cur­rent social impact busi­ness com­mit­ments and ensure that anim­al pro­tec­tion forms a key part of it. Ensure align­ment with the ABTA Glob­al Guid­ance on anim­als in tour­ism and the United Nations Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals to help define your unique objectives.
• Ensure your new com­mit­ment is backed up with a clear strategy and set actions that demon­strate your com­mit­ment through­out all func­tions of your busi­ness, from product selec­tion to extern­al com­mu­nic­a­tions and sup­pli­er choice.
• Work with oth­ers that share your pur­pose! Col­lab­or­ate with oth­er travel busi­nesses to find solu­tions to some of the biggest, long-stand­ing issues for anim­als and nature in tourism.
• Work with NGOs to deliv­er mean­ing­ful change. This can be as simple as sign­ing a pledge, donat­ing skills or funds to help them deliv­er their work, or includ­ing pro­jects with­in hol­i­day portfolios.
• Shout about your great work! Edu­cate and inspire cus­tom­ers, sup­pli­ers, col­leagues! Build your brand as one that cares for the planet!

And import­antly, use your influ­ence to inspire oth­ers to fol­low your lead.

What do you think? Share a short anec­dote or com­ment below. Or write a deep­er “GT” Insight. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive about travel & tour­ism because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

Fea­tured image (top of post): You too can plan for tou­cans. Oh, yes you can! By racta­pop­u­lous (CC0) via Pixabay.

About the author

Helen Ush­er is a co-founder and dir­ect­or of Ani­mon­di­al, a respons­ible tour­ism con­sultancy focused on anim­al pro­tec­tion. A social impact and com­mu­nic­a­tions spe­cial­ist skilled in mar­ket­ing, PR, fun­drais­ing, and stra­tegic part­ner­ships, Helen holds a post­gradu­ate degree with hon­ours from the Insti­tute of Dir­ect and Digit­al Mar­ket­ing. Helen has driv­en award-win­ning glob­al stra­tegic part­ner­ships and CSR ini­ti­at­ives, and worked with a range of cli­ents with­in the cor­por­ate and NGO sec­tors. These have included Jag­uar Land Rover, Alli­anz, Born Free Found­a­tion, Mind UK, WWF, Mar­ie Curie, Eti­had Air­ways, Four Paws Inter­na­tion­al, Kuoni, and more.