Conservation

Tourism is inextricably linked with flora and fauna. Beautiful landscapes and animals attract holidaymakers, but when tourism is not managed carefully, it can have a negative impact on wildlife.

We have a responsibility to care for the natural environments where our customers take their holidays and for any animals involved in tourist excursions. It is also in our business interests to do so, so that our destinations continue to attract visitors.

Biodiversity

Tourism has a unique role to play in protecting biodiversity. Holiday destinations are often close to biodiversity hotspots and tour operators or individual tourists may be better able to fund protection initiatives than local populations. By carefully managing its environmental impacts, particularly water use, the tourism industry can also reduce pressure on local ecosystems.

Animal welfare

Tourism impacts on animals both within attractions such as dolphinariums and around resorts, such as turtles that lay their eggs on beaches. Inappropriate tourism activities can deny animals a respectful, natural life. For example, large numbers of tourists getting too close can disrupt hunting and feeding patterns for wild animals, and some can become very ill if exposed to human illnesses.

Biodiversity and animal welfare are linked: in protecting ecosystems, we support the welfare of the animals that depend on those ecosystems. Our work in these two areas includes raising awareness among our customers and employees, engaging with our suppliers to ensure they treat animals well and working with NGOs and industry partners to raise standards.

Raising awareness among our customers and employees

• Covering conservation issues in employee newsletters and in-flight magazines, as well as on our sustainable tourism microsite and our intranet
• Making the Brooke's Happy Horses Holiday Code available in hotel folders where horses and donkeys are employed in tourist resorts
• In resorts where there is a feral cat problem, establishing a policy that discourages our employees and customers from feeding or adopting the cats. Although these seem caring things to do, they can leave the cats more vulnerable at the end of the season when staff and customers return home. Instead, we encourage people to support local charities dedicated to helping the cats
• Producing a booklet called Sunwing Resort's Flora, to help guests identify and appreciate the indigenous species
• Partnering with the Born Free Foundation to deliver training to employees at Neilson about good practice on adventure holidays involving animals
• Publishing Animal Footprint, a magazine for our employees specifically about animal welfare issues
• Training our employees at resorts in Cyprus, Greece and Turkey on how to help protect turtles and the eggs they lay on local beaches. Information is then passed on to customers through handouts and hotel entertainment programmes
• Encouraging customers to donate to local animal charities and conservation projects, or giving a proportion of guests' fees for relevant excursions to animal welfare organisations
• Supporting the attendance of key employees at international biodiversity workshops
• Using the Travel Foundation's 'Hatch the Turtle' booklets in our KidsWORLD activities to raise awareness of the importance of conservation among our younger guests – see Engaging with our customers on sustainability.

Engaging with our suppliers to ensure they treat animals well

Working with specialists at the Born Free Foundation and with ABTA, Thomas Cook UK has developed training for our employees so that they can audit suppliers of animal attractions. The auditing programme is a major element in the implementation of our Animal Welfare Policy. We were the first major tour operator to publish such a policy.

Since summer 2009, when the auditing programme began, we have completed 30 audits (16% of all animal attraction suppliers). Where we have any concerns about an attraction, for example as a result of a customer complaint, we make that supplier a priority for auditing. With any suppliers whose audit results are disappointing, we develop improvement plans and support them to create a better future for their animals. Rather than withdraw our business, we consider this type of collaboration to be the better option for the welfare of the animals. We have worked to raise awareness of the issues around some practices, such as animals performing tricks that are unnatural to their normal behaviours, as a form of entertainment. As a result, Hi! Hotels now excludes any animal-based events from its hotel entertainment programme.

As many animal attraction companies supply other tour operators as well as Thomas Cook, we can be more effective if we work together as an industry. In 2010, Thomas Cook UK collaborated with two other major tour operators to jointly audit a number of dolphin attractions in Turkey, the Dominican Republic and Mexico. We were also instrumental in setting up the ABTA Animal Welfare Committee. The committee is developing a strategy that will include joint auditing processes.

Working with NGOs and industry partners to raise standards

• We took part in a campaign to close a new dolphin attraction in Hisaronu, Turkey. This involved liaising with pressure groups and other stakeholders, and writing to the Turkish Minister of Tourism – see External engagements
• Thomas Cook in Germany partnered with Futouris to help protect a colony of monk seals on the island of Madeira – see Spotlight: Making a difference in destination communities
• Amid concerns about the treatment of animals around Cuban holiday resorts, we held talks with members of the Cuban Government about developing animal welfare regulation, as there is none currently in place
• Through the ABTA Animal Welfare Committee, we wrote to the Tanzanian Government to argue against a proposed road through the Serengeti National Park, which will cut across the annual migration route for millions of wild animals. This could have disastrous consequences for conservation and for wildlife tourism.

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