The ASA has ruled against an ad from the adventure specialist, which featured two women in front of the Giza Pyramids in Egypt with the text: “People and planet-friendly small group adventures since 1989".

It comes after the ASA received a complaint that the ad, which was seen on the London Underground last November, misleadingly minimised the impact of Intrepid’s holidays on the environment.

Intrepid said it accepted the ruling and vowed to review its approach to advertising.

The authority said the phrase “people and planet-friendly small group adventures” was “an absolute claim”. The ASA said it took this to mean “that taking part in an Intrepid tour caused no environmental damage throughout its full life cycle”.

It added: “We therefore expected to see evidence which demonstrated that taking part in an Intrepid Travel tour, including the necessary travel to and from the destination location, caused no environmental damage over its full life cycle.”

Intrepid argued the claim applied only to its small-group adventures and that the image of the Pyramids meant the ad was a reference to its Egypt tour. The ASA said: “Accordingly, they considered the ad had not misrepresented the impact of international flights or their tours on the environment.”

The operator also detailed its carbon offsetting programme, which meant it had been carbon neutral in its entirety since 2010. Despite this, the ASA said: “We noted Intrepid Travel’s comments that they did not offer flights as part of their travel packages and that consumers would therefore understand that the claim was a narrow reference to their tour offering only. 

“However, we considered that the claim was not qualified with that information. We considered that the presentation of the Giza Pyramids in Egypt within the ad, together with the claim “planet-friendly”, indicated that such tours were international and that it would be necessary to travel, in most cases by flying, to take part in their tours.”

Regarding Intrepid’s carbon neutral status, the ASA ruled: “Whilst we acknowledged that they took part in a number of environmental schemes alongside their carbon offsetting programme, we considered that those schemes did not specifically relate to the life cycle of a holiday with Intrepid Travel, and they had not been referred to in the ad.”

The ASA said it examined many of Intrepid’s environmental initiatives and aims “but noted that many of those initiatives were targeted to deliver results years into the future”. 

It added: “We understood that Intrepid Travel were certified as carbon neutral regarding their business operations because they offset the carbon emissions generated during their tours, such as emissions related to accommodation, meals and transfers, by purchasing carbon credits.”

Ad banned

However, the ASA said: “Intrepid Travel did not calculate all greenhouses gases produced by their consumers travelling to and from their tour locations, nor did their offsetting programme take account of those emissions.

"We therefore considered that their carbon offsetting did not take account of all emissions attributable to the way in which consumers would likely interpret the claim ‘planet-friendly adventures’.” 

The ASA said the failure to account for air travel emissions made the ‘people and planet-friendly’ claim invalid and the ad was consequently misleading. Intrepid was also warned to ensure the basis of future environmental claims was clear and not misleading and that “robust substantiation” was held to support them.

It has been told not to run the advert again in the complained of form.