Shaping a Net Zero Destination: The Travel Corporation and VisitScotland

Shaping a Net Zero Destination

PURPOSE OBJECTIVE OUR IMPACT UN GLOBAL GOALS

Purpose

TreadRight and The Travel Corporation (TTC) have partnered with The Travel Foundation and VisitScotland to support VisitScotland’s ambition to become the world’s first net zero destination. The aim of this pilot project is to develop a structured process to better address in-destination travel emissions through a joint effort between tour operator and destination. This project aligns with TTC’s commitment to achieve net zero, which builds on its Climate Action Plan launched in 2021 and its 5-year sustainability strategy How We Tread Right, launched in 2020.

Objective

As part of COP26’s Destination Net Zero Program, which follows from the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, The Travel Foundation and VisitScotland are working to establish Scotland’s tourism sector as a global leader in the race to net zero, while creating a roadmap for other destinations to follow. This project will frame the collaboration between VisitScotland and TTC, to better understand and create an action plan to avoid, and otherwise reduce tourism’s emissions at the destination level.

The project will receive critical operational support from TTC’s operations in Scotland, including Radical Travel Group’s HAGGiS Adventures and Highland Explorer Tours operating in Scotland. This is in addition to TTC’s other brands operating in Scotland including Contiki, Insight Vacations, Luxury Gold, Trafalgar, and Brendan Vacations. In Scotland, TTC owns four hotels including Skye Inn, Morag’s Lodge, Laggan Hotel, and Red Carnation Hotels‘ 5-star Princes Street in Edinburgh, opening later in 2022.

Impact

As a tour operator with considerable owned assets operating in 70 countries including in Scotland, The Travel Corporation relies on and counts towards its footprint a combination of owned and third-party assets, the latter of which are considered Scope 3 emissions and include both trip and business emissions like transport, meals, electricity, and business travel.

To measure Scope 3 emissions, TTC has developed an internal carbon calculator, which has been critical in setting its carbon reduction targets, which are aligned with and currently being reviewed by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

Through its endeavor to develop a framework for addressing Scope 3 emissions in tourism, this ground-breaking project will help to shape a Destination Climate Action Blueprint, being developed as Glasgow Declaration tourism initiative, of which TTC and its family of travel brands are founding signatories.

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UN GLOBAL GOALS

This project advances SDG 13: Climate Action as both organizations work towards their net zero goals. The learnings from this project will be shared with the industry to help it transition to a low-carbon economy.

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