The agency says 43 of its advisors completed the intensive masterclass on sustainability, as part of its long-term strategy to promote responsible tourism.
Nearly one in every four Designer Travel consultants are now certified by Kiwano Sustainability, an e-learning platform to educate industry professionals on greenwashing and ecotourism.
Hosted by Rebecca Woolford, the training took approximately 20 hours to complete and included six in-depth modules on everything from carbon footprint and tourism leakage to biodiversity and gender equality.
Advisors were also required to complete exercises and pass tests to ensure they fully understood the material, which will allow them to better answer clients’ queries about environmental practices and seek other more sustainable partners.
The course also empowers agents to identify common greenwashing practices, and develop language that will enhance communication with both suppliers and clients.
“It’s been transformative,” Karen Pocock, joint managing director at Designer Travel, told TTG Luxury. “The greenwashing in the travel industry is so difficult. But rather than just take the top line of what suppliers say, this course equips agents to ask them the right questions. We can’t dictate, but we can make choices about the product we suggest.”
Half of the training fee was paid for by Designer Travel, with participating advisors paying the other half. Pocock was keen to stress that the course “wasn’t compulsory”, as she wanted participants to be passionate about environmentalism from the offset and want to be involved, rather than forced.
Initially, Designer Travel purchased 50 places, and will now enrol advisors in the remaining seven places in the lead-up to Christmas. Pocock added the agency will likely purchase more spaces on the course in the future, but so far, they have seen a massive payback from training just a fraction of its network.
“If we get a demand, we’ll take more places out, but we see our recent graduates as our sustainability champions. We’ve been very public about who’s on the course,” she explained.
Pocock also said the consultants who completed the Kiwano masterclass have also been extremely helpful in sharing their knowledge with their fellow advisors in the agency’s Fab Bank and Grapevine, Designer Travel’s two internal databases for sharing knowledge among its 155 experts.
