Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, has launched a scheme to make travel more environmentally friendly and make the travel sector more sustainable.
This mission has the backing of Booking.com, Skyscanner and TripAdvisor – bigwigs in the travel sector.
In his speech made in Amsterdam the Prince said:
We have the opportunity to address this tourism paradox and turn one of the world’s biggest problems into one of its greatest solution….. What is clear across this vast landscape is that our world faces environmental challenges of unprecedented scope and scale.
These human-caused challenges often need a giant system shift to make a significant enough impact. And that is what this partnership is here to try and do.
The full speech can be seen here. According to a statement from Buckingham Palace, the project, known as Travalyst, wants to encourage the travel industry to have sustainable practices in place and aims to improve conservation, environmental protection and community economic development.
According to Harry:
Travel has the unparalleled power to open people’s minds to different cultures, new experiences and to have a profound appreciation for what our world has to offer.
Bringing companies, consumers and communities together is our best chance to protect destinations and ecosystems for future generations.
Harry traveled to the Dutch capital on board a commercial flight to launch Travalyst, which has been two years in the making.
However he was slammed for using a private jet on holiday with his wife and son recently and he took the opportunity to respond:
I spend 99% of my life traveling the world by commercial, err, occasionally there needs to be an opportunity based on a unique circumstance to ensure that my family are safe — it’s generally as simple as that.
We are all responsible for our own individual impact. We can all do better.