Of course, there are still restrictions here and there – such as testing and compliance with vaccination requirements – but the cost and inconvenience these create are an increasingly small price to pay in return for the huge value we all gain from a restorative holiday away, which is great for mind and body. The tide has definitely turned, and the pent-up demand is being unleashed.

So what do we do with our renewed freedom? What choices do we make about where we will visit and what we will do with our ability to start discovering the incredible diversity of our planet once again?

For travel professionals, when we are invited by our customers to suggest and recommend places to visit, what do we do with this unique opportunity to influence the choices our customers make?

Before and during the pandemic, there has been an enduring, loud and welcome lobby from all corners of the industry for destinations and commercial providers of travel products, hoteliers, airlines, cruise lines and so on, to have an even higher regard for “responsible” and “sustainable” travel.

There have been calls for an even greater emphasis on challenging the impact of travel on the people, eco-systems and environment in destinations, and a call on the travel and tourism sector to “build back better”.

TTG is carrying the banner, quite rightly, for “smarter, fairer, better” travel. But what does “build back better” or “smarter, better, fairer” travel mean? What do we do about it? Do we simply carry on as before and think this is going to become self-evident? Are these just words?

I think we all know, deep down, that we simply cannot carry on as before, our customers are getting ahead of us.

Just like old school product training taught us about the places and products we needed to know to ply our trade, we now need to embrace the new “product knowledge” for the growing number of customers who want to make travel decisions that support and protect the environment, the culture and heritage of the places and the quality of life of the people in the destinations we visit.

We need to know what is truly responsible and sustainable travel to give our customers that knowledge too. We need to continue to add value by having that knowledge, or our customers will go elsewhere and find it themselves. The key is education at every level of the travel industry, from the front line to the board room.

We must look in the mirror today and ask ourselves the question, before our customers tell us: do we honestly know which travel options, destination choices, touring products, hotels and resorts, ground handling services, tour operators and airlines truly pay heed to being smarter, fairer and better?

While there are resources out there, the responsibility falls on each of us to gain the knowledge we need to make a difference. We must all step up.

Melissa Tilling is chief executive of Charitable Travel.