Another week, another ruling on greenwashing. This time it’s cruise that's in the firing line, and specifically, some of the travel agencies who make a living from selling it.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned four agents' adverts for making misleading sustainability claims in their promotion of Celebrity Cruises and MSC Cruises products. The culprits: Barrhead Travel; Sunshine Cruise Holidays (Cruise 1st); Cruise Circle; and Seascanner (cruise.co.uk).
All have had their knuckles publicly rapped for publishing ads that presented "eco-friendly" practices and "environmental responsibility" in ways that fell foul of the ASA’s Green Claims Code and the authority’s ever-sharper focus on how travel brands and retailers promote the sustainability of the products they’re selling.
And it's not like the industry hasn't already been warned. The ASA has been making its intentions clear on this for several years now.
If you work in travel marketing, and if your brand is sold through third parties as well as directly to consumers, these latest rulings should make you sit up and take note.
Navigating the space between the efforts a brand is making to be responsible, and communicating what can be quite dry messages in a positive and engaging way, can be tricky. The potential to oversell progress on sustainability when the pressure to capture consumer attention is so fierce is significant.
But when that happens, even if it’s an honest oversight owing to a lack of diligence somewhere in the marketing value chain, as seems to be the case here, the fallout is public – and the impact on your brand’s reputation can be hard to rectify.
The ASA is getting tougher, and this recent ruling shows the industry needs it. The truth is we only have ourselves to blame for the increased scrutiny our industry faces because the exaggerated claims, half truths and creative wording that can be used, and featured in the examples identified in this ruling, are dangerous for brands and consumers alike.
'The ASA is keeping us honest in a way few others are'
The rules of what you can and can’t say about sustainability in travel marketing are laid out in the ASA’s Green Claims Code, and responsibility for following them regardless of channel or asset falls squarely on the shoulders of the hard-pressed travel marketer.
They were introduced specifically to avoid ambiguity, and to address what had previously been fragmented guidance that left too much room for interpretation. They’re there to give clear guardrails to marketers who are being asked to tell sustainability stories, and to give the kind of clarity which is the bedrock of consumer trust.
I’ll be the first to admit that tussles with the ASA can be frustrating. I’ve been there myself. You think you’re telling an inspiring story about progress, only to have it pulled apart for not being precise enough, or not substantiated in exactly the right way. Sometimes it feels pedantic. Sometimes you disagree entirely.
It can be especially tricky if a third party – let’s say a travel agency through which your product is sold – repurposes an already questionable claim in their own marketing, giving it an extended shelf life and a wider audience.
Heath Heise is a member of the Llama collective of travel marketers (Credit: Heath Heise / We Are Llama)
But here’s the truth: the ASA is one of the few bodies keeping us honest. Their rulings force us as marketers to pause, double-check and really think about what we’re saying. Yes, we’re here to sell holidays, flights and cruises, but we’re also responsible for how those sales messages land in the real world.
We owe it to the brands that pay us to protect their credibility. And we owe it to consumers to sell to them with integrity. Because while customers do appreciate progress, they will not forgive deception. One misleading “eco-friendly” claim can undo years of genuine sustainability work.
Travel and tourism is one of the sectors most vulnerable to greenwashing backlash. Why? Because it’s inherently resource-intensive. Whether you’re moving people across oceans, fuelling planes or heating hotels, there’s no escaping the environmental impact.
'Embracing integrity in marketing wins trust and loyalty'
Progress is being made, albeit slowly, and consumers are becoming more aware of the challenges travel faces. What they’re asking for, though, isn’t perfection – it’s honesty.
But those steps have to be presented carefully and honestly within a brand’s marketing - and in any marketing its retail partners are doing when promoting its products to their customers in turn. "We’re making improvements” is very different from “we’re green”. The first builds trust. The second risks breaking it.
With its code, the ASA has given marketers the framework we need for what can and can’t be said, and how evidence should be presented. If we get that right from the outset, the potential for messages to get lost in translation by third parties is reduced.
Our advice to travel marketers is simple:
- Celebrate progress, but don’t exaggerate it
- Don’t make claims that can’t be substantiated
- Always sense-check sustainability claims with an expert – and use the ASA’s free service to sense-check an advert before putting it live; and
- Ask yourself if the average consumer would walk away with an accurate picture of your brand’s impact
Yes, the ASA can be tough, sometimes frustratingly so. But if their rulings keep more of us honest, then they’re doing their job.
As the four brands in this latest ruling have learned to their cost, in the long run, those that embrace integrity in their sustainability marketing will be the ones that win consumer trust and loyalty.
Heath Heise, co-founder of the Llama collective, started his career in travel marketing at British Airways, and as an alumnus of its graduate programme. From there he joined Amex Travel, eventually becoming vice-president of international brand, before finally becoming global marketing director at STA Travel. He is a specialist in developing brand strategies, creating visual identities, structuring marketing teams and delivering go-to-market plans.
