Barrhead Travel Sustainability Pledge

Barrhead Travel Sustainability Policy
Tourism is a fast-growing industry in a world where the environment is increasingly threatened. According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, tourism accounts for 9.5% of global Gross Domestic Product and employs 266 million people, making it one of the largest industries in the world. Such opportunity also brings responsibility. For example, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation Network (UNWTO) associates travel and tourism with 5% of global carbon emissions.

We believe that well-managed tourism is capable of generating positive economic and social development.

Our Sustainability Pledge
Our pledge is to educate our customer and suppliers to ensure that the destinations and communities we serve will grow and prosper for generations to come.

Suppliers we work with undergo a rigorous assessment to ensure they adopt the best in class health and safety and sustainability standards.

Travelife Sustainability System
Barrhead Travel supports the Travelife Sustainability System. Travelife is recognised by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council as a robust certification scheme that provides assurance for our customers. Subscribed hotels are independently audited against criteria that include environmental management, employee and customer engagement, local procurement, and labour and human rights. Successful hotels receive an award that is featured on our websites, in brochures and in marketing materials.

Our Safety Management System
Our Health and Safety Management System relies on a number of core features:

• Supplier checks: We expect as a minimum that our suppliers will meet the legal requirements of their own country.
• We partner with Argent Health and Safety. Argent undertake audits of accommodation, excursion and land transportation suppliers and the results of these audits are carefully monitored to ensure that we drive safety standards in key areas.
• Customer information and awareness. We aim to help our customers look after themselves, their families and their travelling companions. We do this by providing information to raise awareness, for example, in brochures, on tickets, during flights and in resort, as well as promoting Foreign Office travel advice and health information. We also ensure that we learn from our customer experiences and the feedback given to us.
• We work with those who are able to give us specialist advice on safety matters that may affect the holidays we sell. These include the World Health Organisation, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and Control, ABTA and the FTO.
• Reporting and performance. Working towards consistency in our customer incident and illness reporting helps us to monitor incidents closely and make health and safety changes where necessary.