MAKING A WORLD OF DIFFERENCESustainability is so important to Thomas Cook that is has a dedicated Sustainability Team, headed by Ruth Holroyd, which reports direct to the Group Director for Quality, Safety and Sustainability. This move reflects their aim to take greater action on sustainable tourism, ensuring that the business makes a more positive difference to the destinations in which they operate.

In this case study, we look at how Thomas Cook, working in partnership with The Travel Foundation, engage their younger customers with Responsible Tourism.

THOMAS COOK AIRLINES ALSO ASSIST TURTLE RESCUEAs well as its focus on sustainable tourism, Thomas Cook gets directly involved in conservation projects. For example, earlier this year, two rare stranded loggerhead turtles that were rescued from a popular surfing beach in Devon, were set free after five months of rehabilitation. The turtles were transported by Thomas Cook Airlines from Gatwick Airport to their new home in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, on Monday 23rd June.

A dedicated website will soon be available for customers and will include ‘user-friendly’ information such as: – Top Tips for travellers – Where to find Kids Clubs that will feature Hatch and his friends – Animal facts – Updates on Travel Foundation projects around the world – Hotels that meet Travelife criteria for environment and culture

Customers will be able to use the website to keep up to date with Thomas Cook’s ongoing sustainability projects, and will be able to email the Sustainability Team with suggestions and feedback.

To find out more about the Thomas Cook Group Sustainability policy, visit the corporate website at: http://csr.thomascookgroup.com

“ I will be working with Vicky Donovan and Michelle Hopkins in our Specialist Delivery Team to see how we can use Hatch’s success as a platform from which to promote sustainability in all our Children’s Clubs across the world during Summer 2009 and beyond.” Jo Baddeley, Sustainable Tourism Manager

“ For Summer 2008 KidsWORLD has proved a great success across the whole programme. Working with The Travel Foundation has given us some great opportunities.

The KidsWORLD staff have helped to get across some great messages to children and grown-ups, on how we can make a difference to our environment whilst on holiday and in our every day lives.”

Jackie Stevenson, Overseas Operations Director

“ Thomas Cook founded the business over 160 years ago with the desire to change lives for the better and to educate people through travel. We’re still inspired by these values and believe that talking to our customers about sustainability is critical to changing the way customers travel. As a specialist operator for families, Hatch the Turtle is a perfect way for us to communicate with our younger customers, combining fun with learning. Our mission to educate through travel continues and Hatch demonstrates that sustainability doesn’t have to be boring or complicated. Simple things can make big differences and enhance the holiday experience for all, now and for the future.”

Ruth Holroyd, Head of Sustainability, Thomas Cook Group plc

CREATE Centre Smeaton Road BRISTOL BS1 6XN T + 44 (0) 117 927 3049 F + 44 (0) 117 930 0076 E admin@thetravelfoundation.org.uk W www.thetravelfoundation.org.uk

THE TRAVEL FOUNDATION The Travel Foundation is helping the travel industry take effective action on sustainable tourism. Helping to care for the people and places your customers love to visit. Important work, as it improves quality and protects the resources on which business depends. The Foundation promotes the benefits of sustainable tourism to the industry and its customers, runs projects at mainstream destinations to test out solutions and develops tools and guidelines to help the industry take action. To find out much more about The Travel Foundation and to access a range of ‘Insider Guides’ for customers, please visit our website at www.thetravelfoundation.org.uk.

The Travel Foundation wishes to thank all partners who have helped to get Hatch out to children over the past three years, including TUI and Keycamp. We believe such initiatives help to educate adults and overseas staff, as well as children. We also want to thank The Born Free Foundation for its continued help with animal welfare facts and our creative design agency Four, based in Bristol.

If you would like to use Hatch, or any of our other staff or customer education materials, please take a look at our website www.thetravelfoundation.org.uk – engage your customers or contact admin@thetravelfoundation.org.uk. To discuss the communication needs of your company or explore the development of bespoke solutions, please contact jane.coles@thetravelfoundation.org.uk.

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Thomas Cook reps felt that this initiative helped raise awareness with parents, as well as the children, as kids were encouraged to complete the activity book with help from adults. Parents were keen for their children to learn about travel’s environmental and social issues in such a fun way.

Donna Green and Nicola Nuggent, both KidsWORLD reps in Ibiza felt that the book and the DVD were an excellent way for them to learn something new as well. They were very surprised by some of the facts and it has made them think differently about their responsibility to sustainable tourism whilst working overseas. This has been an additional gain to the initiative; parents and overseas staff have been influenced, as well as children.

Feedback from all of the resorts involved has revealed similar stories. Reps have been very innovative in their usage of the books; copies were kept at airports for use in check-in queues or in the event of delays and books were also used during family excursion programmes to keep children engaged between activities. Using them in this way also allowed Thomas Cook to reach children not in the KidsWORLD featured properties, therefore helping to extend the message further.

Overall it has been an excellent exercise in proving that sustainability can be fun and interesting for everyone; children, parents and staff alike. By trialling this across ten destinations, Thomas Cook has reached an enormous amount of people in

six weeks. The booklet helps to get serious conservation and animal welfare issues across – as well as the need to conserve culture and ensure local people benefit – in a fun and easy to understand way. A great way to educate the future generation of travellers!

Thomas Cook takes its responsibility to the environment, people and cultures of overseas destinations seriously, as these are the things that make holidays special for customers. A critical success factor has been staff buy-in and the Sustainability Team has worked hard to raise awareness of the issues and communicate regularly with their destination teams. There is a monthly magazine and staff are encouraged to contribute articles outlining initiatives in their areas, which also generates a little friendly competition! Charitable initiatives are also highlighted, from fundraising for the Ricardo Limardo Hospital in Dominican Republic to collecting clothes and bric-a-brac for car boot sales in The Canaries. The magazine is a great way to share ideas and look at replicating good practice all over the world.

The intention going forward is for Thomas Cook to engage staff and customers at all points of the customer journey, encouraging them to embrace sustainability and make a positive difference to destinations across the world. Hatch is just one of the many initiatives they are implementing to achieve this.

The Travel Foundation had already produced a range of ‘Insider Guides’ for adults, when in 2006 they turned their attention to the younger traveller. The idea was to create a fun way for kids to learn about sustainable tourism, integrating serious messages into a lively Play and Puzzle book.

A ‘green’ mascot was created – Hatch the Hawksbill Turtle – to help keep kids interested and a successful pilot went ahead during that summer.

Hatch proved to be very popular and this year one of our key partners, Thomas Cook, rolled out a new Play and Puzzle book across their top ten KidsWORLD destinations, in the Balearic Islands, The Canary Islands, Greece and parts of Turkey.

The company saw Hatch as a way to extend communications with customers and as a supplement to the ‘green’ information already supplied to adult holidaymakers. Thomas Cook has a portfolio of children’s clubs covering pre-schoolers to 16 year olds. There are 225 Children’s Club Representatives overseas, working in 48 clubs and looking after approximately 50,000 children across the Thomas Cook, Airtours, Sunset, Style and Direct Holidays brands. There are seven product lines ranging from Suncentre Children’s to Dizzy and Shades clubs. Hatch was used with 4-9 year olds. Clubs were run six days a week along with two evening activities, so there was plenty of opportunity to use the new books within the sessions. The Play and Puzzle books included puzzles, games, stories and colouring in – all with a ‘green’ message to help kids understand how to make a positive difference to the environment, culture and people living in destinations. Hatch was able to work alongside Thomas Cook’s own mascots, Dizzy the Dolphin and Shades the Shark.

5,400 books were rolled out as a six-week project covering the main school holidays between July and September. At the start of the initiative, Thomas Cook involved key staff in a conference call. Head Childrens’ Representatives in each destination were fully briefed and able to exchange ideas. Hatch created a great deal of enthusiasm and helped to engage staff further in sustainable tourism.

Half way through the trial, Michelle Hopkins, one of Thomas Cook’s Specialist Delivery Team, was able to see how the project was progressing in Ibiza. The KidsWORLD team there had used the Hatch books with the ‘Turtles in Trouble’ DVD also produced by The Travel Foundation. The eight minute animation really appealed to the children as it tells the story of turtle conservation in a simple, fun way. Animals are a great way to get children interested in ‘green’ issues. “Our idea was to watch the DVD first and then link in to the Play and Puzzle book” said Michelle. The one hour session included the DVD, thirty minutes of working on the activity booklet and finally a discussion to find out what the kids had learned and what they would now do differently. The session had a real impact on the children, as you can see from the quotes and poem opposite!

“ I won’t throw litter into the sea as a turtle could think that it is food.” Joshua, 9yrs

“ Don’t run at the back of the beach as that is where the turtles like to lay the eggs.” Cameron, 8yrs

“ Mum and Dad made me eat Spanish food, it looked funny but I think I liked it.” Andrew, 8yrs

“ Be careful with beach umbrellas as it could be where turtles eggs are.“ Izabella, 5yrs

“ If we don’t look after the animals there will soon be none left and I will be very sad.” Jack, 6 yrs

Recycle, recycle, keep the world cleanIf you want to see more greenMostly fumes produce CO2and that’s not good for me or youSo try to cycle every dayto keep all that CO2 awayThe world could become a toxic placeand would affect the human race!Dan Tyler, 8 yrs

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