The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint about an ad in the digital edition of a national newspaper featuring a cruise beginning in Svalbard.
The text read: “Selected Svalbard cruises with free flights... Since 1896, we’ve been the leaders in sustainable expeditions."
The ASA said that while it acknowledged consumers would understand the “sustainable” claim referred only to the sea travel aspect of the trip, the ad did not qualify this.
The authority said: “We considered ’sustainable expeditions’ was an absolute claim, which would be understood as referring to the full life cycle of a HX holiday, including travel to and from the destination location.
“While we acknowledged HX had taken steps to reduce the environmental impact of its cruises, those steps did not cover all aspects of their holiday packages, and were not referred to in the ad.
“For example, air travel, such as that required to take a HX cruise, produced high levels of both CO2 and non-CO2 emissions, which were making a substantial contribution to climate change.”
In its mitigation, HX argued that the use of the term “expedition” would be understood by consumers as being the cruise component of the trip.
It added the term “sustainable” did not mean there was no environmental impact at all but that HX’s impact was “relatively low” compared with other cruise brands.
However, the ASA ruled the absolute claim of "sustainable expeditions" was not “adequately substantiated”. It has banned the advert and told HX not to run it in the form complained of again.
In addition, it advised the brand "to ensure the basis of future environmental claims was made clear and did not give a misleading impression of their expeditions’ environmental impact, and that robust substantiation was held to support them".
’We fully support regulation in this area’
An HX spokesperson told TTG: "We acknowledge the Advertising Standards Authority’s decision regarding a single digital advert published in a UK national newspaper on 6 March 2024. While we are disappointed with the outcome, we respect the ASA’s role in maintaining advertising integrity.
"Our team never intended to create a misleading message and remain wholly committed to championing sustainability in the expedition cruise sector. We understand that specific wording in this standalone advert could have been clearer, and we will continue to ensure our communications accurately reflect our sustainability efforts.
"We fully support regulation in this area, as it is crucial to preventing misinformation. At HX, we remain committed to advancing greener travel practices across our expedition fleet and leading by example in the cruise industry, particularly in regard to transparent ESG reporting.”
The ruling comes just days after travel, specifically travel agents, was warned the sustainability messaging in its advertising is set to face more concerted scrutiny from the ASA.
Speaking at the TTG Fairer Travel Sustainability Forum last week, Miles Lockwood – the ASA’s director of complaints and investigations – told forum delegates the authority was monitoring travel agency claims around sustainability.
Lockwood said absolute claims were a particular risk. “We see time and again at the ASA companies making absolute green claims which we will hold you to a very high standard against. The trick is to be a little bit more qualified – it’s easier than businesses realise.
"If a claim was [that you are] ‘becoming more sustainable’ or ‘on a sustainable journey’, or something along those lines, we are going to have a more relaxed attitude."
