Today, Travalyst-a non-profit global coalition founded by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex-announced its first-ever release of 49 certifications for sustainable accommodations. This is an important step in their mission to standardize how sustainability certifications are displayed on booking platforms and make it easier for travelers to make informed, eco-friendly choices. Travalyst works to change the way people book their stays by providing clear, concise, and consistent sustainability information so they know they can trust the certifications they find online.
Answering the Call for Consistency in Sustainable Travel
Travalyst was formed in 2019 to take the want of sustainable options for travelers and put them into a market currently flooded with certifications. According to research commissioned by Booking.com-one of the key partners in Travalyst-almost half of all travellers, 45%, say that accommodations with sustainability labels are more appealing to them. But a lack of consistency in those labels has been a major impediment, and 67% of respondents feel that all travel booking websites need to have the same certifications and labels.
With this in mind, Travalyst has made the first move to establish standardized criteria for the certification bodies themselves. It is in this regard that such certifications not only become reliable but also indicative of the latest regulatory standards and best practices in the industry.
The Three Core Criteria for Certification
In ensuring there is harmony and reliability in sustainability certifications, Travalyst’s Independent Advisory Group has ratified three core criteria that the certification bodies must attain:
Third-party audit: This should be a certification involving on-site or remote assessment by an independent third party. In this regard, it ensures the proper reporting of actual accommodation-specific sustainable practices.
Public standards: The criteria for a particular certification must be publicly issued in order to show a sense of transparency and accountability. It is through this openness that travelers and industry players are able to trust the certification on the booking platform.
Impact of Sustainability: The certifications must take into consideration social, economic, and environmental factors that are to meet the UN-SDGs. The holistic approach ensures that the broad spectrum of sustainability challenges is taken into consideration when addressing certifications.
These criteria elevate the bar of the certifications to where they are not only credible but contribute toward global sustainability goals. Meeting these standards, the first 49 certifications released by Travalyst are accommodations indeed committed to sustainability in earnest.
Simplifying the Sustainability Landscape
These certificates are just the beginning of Travalyst’s work to make the sustainability landscape of the travel industry less complex. The CEO of Travalyst, Sally Davey, has pointed out the difficulties accompanying both travelers and hosts. Indeed, she has noted that “such an amazing number of certification bodies and labels flooding the market have brought about utter confusion among consumers, who cannot understand what is really sustainable and what is not.”.
We regularly hear how this can be overwhelming and confusing, not only to those people wanting to book a more sustainable stay but also to accommodation providers and booking platforms, said Davey. We’re working to make things simpler and easier to navigate.
Travalyst is an online platform that offers a standardized set of criteria to help travelers choose sustainable accommodations in a very noisy marketplace. The organization’s initiative is open and free to all global sustainability certifications in the accommodation sector, which means a range of different certifications has been given the opportunity to be involved with, and thus benefit from, this new standard.
A Long-Term Commitment to Sustainable Travel
This issuance of the initial 49 certifications represents a major milestone for Travalyst, but only one element of its long-term drive to further develop integrity in sustainability information within the travel sector. In what will be an ongoing process, Travalyst is continuing to take applications for certification, enabling the recognition of many more accommodations for their work in sustainability.
Sally Davey added that the agency needed to be responsive to the fast-moving legislature: “This list is a first milestone in a long-term commitment to enhancing the integrity of sustainability information for consumers and industry as a whole, and we’ll keep working with stakeholders to monitor the fast-moving legislative landscape closely while adapting our approach to certifications correspondingly.”.
As Travalyst continues to build the number of certified accommodation on its site, it will be working even more closely with the booking platforms and the wider industry to ensure these certifications are consistently front and center. In that way, this sustainability information becomes as accessible and as trustworthy as possible-really creating that enablement for travelers to make values-aligned choices.
Looking Ahead: The Future of Sustainable Travel
This places Travalyst at the front of the wider movement toward increased sustainability within the travel industry. Travalyst is informing and creating demand for greener options in accommodations by giving clarity on the sustainability of different types of accommodations and, in turn, encouraging other properties to become more sustainable.
As more and more travelers make sustainability a reason for travel, the industry can expect more and more accommodations to pursue certification. The work of Travalyst in standardizing and simplifying this certification process will be key in the industry’s shift to ensure sustainability is a consideration in every booking decision.
Source: Travalyst