News Roundup: Amex GBT’s Green Travel Whitepaper on sustainable business travel, Trip.com car rentals on KAYAK platform in APAC, India-based Vistara’s extension of partnership with Amadeus
Environment: Businesses aware of need for greener travel but majority yet to adopt best practices, says GBT
A new ‘Green Travel’ whitepaper from American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) found that a large number (78%) of businesses it surveyed in 2019 do not currently address reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in their travel policies despite rising public pressure.
While 47% of the business respondents have a formal environmental sustainability policy in their organisations that covers indirect GHG emissions (include business travel), only 42% factor environmental sustainability in their air sourcing processes. Fewer do in their ground transport and hotel sourcing.
The research also revealed 79% of businesses do not require their preferred airlines to have environmental certification. A quarter of respondents use third parties such as travel management companies (TMCs) to help reduce their carbon emissions.
“There is definitely high social awareness among both employees and business leaders, however green travel programmes are still a rarity,” noted Harris Manlutac, head of GBT Global Business Consulting for APAC. “The first step in creating a more sustainable travel programme is to measure emissions. By doing this, a business can gain a thorough understanding of their travellers’ environmental footprint and put practical plans in place.”
The GBT report revealed only 42% of respondents currently measure carbon emissions from air travel. This was largely because sustainability initiatives focus on direct emissions from core business activities. They do not take into account indirect emissions from ancillary activities – the majority of business travel falls under Scope 3 of the GHG Protocol that captures indirect emissions relating to transport activities, outsourced activities and some electricity-related activities.
“This lack of focus on indirect emissions is a key barrier to sustainability in travel. It’s not always clear what steps can be taken to implement meaningful sustainable practice in business travel,” Manlutac remarked. “This lack of know-how, the cost of going green and competing priorities in booking travel make up the primary barriers to green travel.”
He believes auditing a travel programme is the first step for a company to understand its environmental impact. “From there, with internal stakeholder buy-in and external expert support, businesses can start to create and roll out effective sustainable travel strategies.”
The ‘Green Travel Whitepaper – Approach to Integrating Sustainability in Business Travel’ analyses the drivers, barriers and benefits of bringing sustainability to business travel programmes. It offers best practices for greener travel, including use of ride-share apps, carbon offsetting schemes, direct flights and environmentally certified hotels.
• Download the full report here.
Transportation: Trip.com rides with KAYAK on car rentals
Trip.com Group and KAYAK have entered a partnership that will see the Chinese OTA’s car rentals offered on the KAYAK platform in the Asia Pacific region.
With this collaboration travellers can search Trip.com car rental services in Greater China, Singapore, Korea and other destinations on KAYAK, among other search engines.
Bruce Wang, head of Trip.com Group Car Rental Business, said the partnership would play an important role in extending the reach of the company’s extensive car rental services overseas. “Since launching overseas car rentals in 2016 and in 2018 on our Trip.com platform we’ve seen annual growth of over 300%, and reached a coverage of approximately 200 countries and regions.”
To provide the “most seamless experience” for customers he revealed Trip.com has integrated local traffic laws, license requirements and credit card policies into its overseas rental services.
Wang hoped the new deal with KAYAK would give more travellers globally access to the company’s cars.
Added Joseph Xiao, KAYAK’s Greater China director: “The demand for overseas car rentals is constantly increasing, and Trip.com Group provides high quality services with wide coverage in this sector. We look forward to working more closely with Trip.com Group in car rentals to provide more choice to our customers worldwide.”
The car rental products on Trip.com platform are available in English, traditional Chinese, Korean and Japanese. According to the group, its overseas car rental business has maintained three digit growth and is among the most frequently utilised services on the platform for travellers alongside air ticketing, rail ticketing and hotel reservations.
Distribution: Vistara extends partnership with Amadeus for international growth
Indian full-service airline Vistara, a joint venture beween TATA Sons and Singapore Airlines, has renewed its contract with Amadeus for the Altéa suite of solutions including inventory, reservation, ticketing and departure control systems.
The technology company said in a statement its technology, including optimisation of several areas of the business including passenger services, revenue management and payments, would support Vistara’s international expansion plans.
Through this extended partnership Vistara will benefit from the Amadeus Airline Platform, which provides the carrier benefits including greater collaboration with start-ups and a broad partner ecosystem.
In turn, Amadeus’ global network of travel sellers will have access to a broader range of Vistara’s content, as well as preferred and negotiated fares through the Amadeus Travel Platform. They also enjoy complete visibility of the airline’s inventory in real time.
Gurgaon-based Vistara serves 24 destinations including several Indian cities and international destinations like Singapore, Bangkok and Dubai, with a flieet of Airbus A320 and Boeing 737-800 Next Generation aircraft.
The airline aims to expand its footprint through 2023. Last year it placed firm orders worth US$3.1 billion at list prices with Airbus for 13 aircrafts from the A320neo family and with Boeing for six 787-9 Dreamliners. In addition, the airline is leasing another 37 new A320neo-family aircrafts from leasing companies over the said period to significantly grow its fleet.
• Featured image credit: JordanSimeonov/Getty Images
