Unveiled on Tuesday night (19 September) the ‘Doing the right thing’ strategy will focus on making strides in four key areas – sustainability, carbon footprint, ethical operations and charity – as it wants to become a leader in the sector.
“We’re a travel business and we develop, sell and deliver holidays,” chief executive Phil Hullah said. “We’re very proud of it but that’s clearly a very difficult thing to do in a way that has a positive impact on the environment.
“The onus is on us to do everything we possibly can to minimise the negative impact and maximise the positive impact [of holidays].”
In terms of sustainability, Riviera will mainly focus on halving the use of plastic and paper by switching for the most part to e-documents and brochures as well as using reusable bag tags instead of plastic ones.
The river cruise specialist will nevertheless give customers the possibility to get their brochures printed at a price.
“We also recognise that some of our customers still prefer printed materials, so we’re not planning to remove things from the offer to our customers,” added marketing director Sarah Fowler.
When it comes to carbon reduction, Riviera is looking at several options, both short and long-term, in order to reach a 20% reduction by 2028.
Short-term measures include partnering with environmental consultant ecollective to measure its carbon footprint, as well as designing new holidays with more rail options in mind and offering more vegetarian and vegan options.
Longer-term goals, Riviera said, will include converting its river cruise ships to more energy-efficient ones as well restructuring the itineraries to minimise flights.
During the presentation, the tour operator said it will focus on making sure that it has got “a fair, inclusive, enriching work environment for all” with open forums and specialised training, while announcing charity partner, development NGO Practical Action.
“We’ve always been a fairly charitable business, but we wanted to use this ‘Doing the right thing’ plan as a catalyst in the next stage of our charitable journey,” said head of strategy and innovation Will Sarson.
Through the partnership, Riviera will help clean up rivers and reduce waste hotspots in Kenya, improving the work and conditions for 100 workers.
“We have chosen Practical Action as a new charity partner due to their alignment with our values and the impactful and exciting projects they have in the pipeline,” said Hullah. "Although we do not claim to have all of the answers, or to be the finished article yet, our ESG initiatives and aims are statements of where we hope to get to in the future."
