The Travel Foundation

By Jonathan Clarke

The Travel Foundation is a charity that helps the travel industry with issues surrounding tourism sustainability.

Formed in 2003 in association with the British government, they act as an authority on green issues and sustainable tourism for the travel industry. The foundation runs a number of projects across the globe that help local people, industries and environments.

The Travel Foundation splits projects into three categories: Climate Change, People and Livelihoods and Education.

The Travel Foundation

By Jonathan Clarke

The burning issue at the heart of any environmental cause is that of climate change, and it's a hot topic that the Travel Foundation is looking to address.

Its projects are active in Gambia and Kenya, while it is also supporting tree-planting in Sri Lanka. There's also a project to help communities preserve their rainforest in Mexico.

The foundation also support projects to help reduce your carbon footprint and cut water and energy consumption at snowsport destinations by 25%.

A key part of sustainable tourism is to ensure that the money you spend locally is fed back into local communities and helps to support the people of the area. The Travel Foundation's work in this area is to help build strong links between the tourism industry and the local communities at holiday destinations.

The Travel Foundation

By Jonathan Clarke

There are projects in place in Brazil, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Gambia, Kenya, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Tobago.

Activities include visits to rural villages, supporting local crafts markets, helping trade-skills get passed to the next generation, and teaching business skills to youngsters.

Education is the third area in which the Travel Foundation looks to aid tourism in helping build local communities. A big focus of their drive for education is to help teach the local people to work in the tourism industry and thrive on the holidaymakers visiting their country.

A good example is the scheme they have in place to retrain Mexican fishermen as whale shark guides for tourists.

With a long list of supporters and a huge range of diverse ecotourism projects, the Travel Foundation is a key part of the travel industry's shift towards responsible and clean holidays.

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