Melissa Tilling, chief executive of Sustainable Journeys and the travel agency Charitable Travel, said the new operator, targeting independent travellers who “want control over what they do” in the mid-market, is seeking not to provide a “bitter pill for customers”.

Speaking at the new operator’s launch event on Monday (15 January) in partnership with Visit Estonia, to mark Estonia as Sustainable Journeys’ launch destination, Tilling said: “We recognise people don’t buy sustainability; they want to buy sustainability, but more importantly, they want to buy fantastic holidays.

“Our goal is to offer fantastic holidays with sustainability baked in,” she added.

Tilling confirmed Sustainable Journeys is aimed at the mid-market flexible independent traveller.

“There’s a lot of talk around sustainable luxury. It doesn’t mean we won’t offer luxury, but we are squarely aimed at the more affordable mid-market price point, so we don’t become elitist and people have access to what we are trying to do,” she said.

The operator will be teaming up with local destination providers that it has sourced based on sustainable credentials, including Travel Addicts Club in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and an upcoming partnership with Colombian DMC Awake Travel.

Tilling told TTG Sustainable Journeys has partnered with flight-free travel provider Byway to offer “rail and stay” options to get from the start to the end of a journey, but stressed Sustainable Journeys is “not a flight denier” and will offer flights. 

“In Europe, wherever we can, we will enable rail journeys to and from.”

“We recognise customers want to make a difference, but sometimes destinations can’t be reached by any way other than flying, or that sometimes customers can’t always give up the time and money to travel by train,” she stressed.

“We don’t want to sell indirect flights, and you won’t see us promoting business or first class, but if someone asks for it, I’d rather they book with us, so we can make a difference on the ground. We will explain, but we won’t decline it.”

Sustainable Journeys tours will be aimed at those travelling in the low season owing to being “very conscious of overtourism”, Tilling said

She pointed to the demand for more clearly defined sustainable journeys through market research via a survey by Charitable Travel in 2022. The survey of 4,000 customers found that 62% wanted more sustainability in their holiday arrangements, but just 17% were confident in their understanding of what constituted a sustainable holiday and where to find good information.

“There’s a huge amount of customer confusion around what sustainability is, and which certificates people can trust,” Tilling said.

Sustainable Journeys’ product will be sold through a small part of the Charitable Travel reservations team, entirely by phone or responding to email requests. Tilling confirmed that the venture will be direct to consumer, not selling via the trade.

The launch packages to Estonia were developed for travellers to explore outside of Tallinn, taking in forests, national parks, coastal retreats and cultural centres, including the country’s second city Tartu – 2024’s European Capital of Culture.

Other destinations available now include Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and west Sweden, with plans to roll out itineraries for Switzerland, Colombia, New York State, Oregon, Virginia, Spain, Germany, the Seychelles, Guyana and Morocco among others over the course of 2024.

“We’re not focused on one destination or one part of the world – we’re always researching for the right local partner, and we want to grow over time a worldwide collection of sustainable journeys with a community of followers,” Tilling said.

Tilling announced Sustainable Journeys has an ethos of being “science driven” and has teamed up with Path Net Zero to ensure its itineraries are measured for their carbon emissions and is working with NGO Planeterra on measuring its itineraries’ ripple scores, which tracks how much customer spend on a trip will remain within the destination’s local economy.

Path Net Zero will also manage a carbon fund for the operator, supporting projects that have reduced emissions through a 3% donation of a holiday’s price through registry Gold Standard.

Sustainable Journeys customers will have Atol, Abta and trust account protection, Tilling confirmed.

She added that the operator wanted to be “honest and authentic”, stating that it will be upfront with customers if part of a trip is not sustainable.

“If something isn’t sustainable but included on the tour – it might be included to enable the place before or the place after, or a hotel that is not particularly sustainable – we will be clear about this, so that our customers can make the right decisions. We’re not greenwashing. We’re telling you what’s good and what’s not so good, but obviously gravitating towards the good.

“We are not perfect; we are an enabler. This is about incremental change and striving for perfection.”