Guiding Principles
Cheltenham Travel Festival is a travel event whose purpose is to encourage and promote sustainable, positive impact tourism.
As tourism is one of the largest employers on the planet, it is in our interest as an industry to promote understanding of tourism as a vital contributor in creating socio-cultural, environmental and economic benefits for destinations and its people around the globe.
While we believe that no organisation is perfect in its actions regarding responsibility and sustainability, we believe that it should be the intent of every organisation to move towards such goals. Thus, Cheltenham Travel Festival declares its support of the following key issues:
Cheltenham Travel Festival affirms and agrees with the UNWTO’s Global Sustainable Tourism Development Guidelines and Management practices:
Sustainable Development Goals
1.Make optimal use of environmental resources that constitute a key element in tourism development, maintaining essential ecological processes and helping to conserve natural heritage and biodiversity.
2.Respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities, conserve their built and living cultural heritage and traditional values, and contribute to inter-cultural understanding and tolerance.
3.Ensure viable, long-term economic operations, providing socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders that are fairly distributed, including stable employment and income-earning opportunities and social services to host communities, and contributing to poverty alleviation.
Responsibility
Cheltenham Travel Festival endorses the UNWTO’s Global Code of Ethics for Tourism and believes in the internationally agreed standard for sustainable tourism put forth by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, and that tourism businesses and destinations should adopt the criteria specifically in these four areas:
- Demonstrating effective sustainable management
- Maximising social and economic benefits to the local community and minimising negative impacts
- Maximising benefits to cultural heritage and minimising negative impacts
- Maximising benefits to the environment and minimising negative impacts
Climate Action
Cheltenham Travel Festival through it’s sister brand, Inspire Global, is proud to be a signatory of the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, and we commit to deliver plans aligned with the pathways to cut tourism emissions in half over the next decade and reach Net Zero emissions as soon as possible before 2050.
- Support the global commitment to halve emissions by 2030 and reach Net Zero as soon as possible before 2050;
- Deliver climate action plans within 12 months from becoming a signatory (or updating existing plans), and begin implementing them;
- Align plans with the five pathways of the Declaration (Measure, Decarbonise, Regenerate, Collaborate, Finance) to accelerate and co-ordinate climate action in tourism;
- Report publicly on an annual basis on progress against interim and long-term targets, as well as on actions being taken;
- Work in a collaborative spirit, sharing good practices and solutions, and disseminating information to encourage additional organisations to become signatories and supporting one another to reach targets as quickly as possible.
Updated September 2023