AusLeisure

Ecotourism Australia - the peak body of eco and sustainable tourism - and Australia and New Zealand’s largest experience network, Big Red Group, have entered into a strategic partnership to amplify and support a pathway to sustainability for experience operators.

Big Red Group, which includes experience platforms Adrenaline, Experience Oz, and RedBalloon, is committed to promoting sustainable and responsible tourism operators across their 14,000+ experiences to help travellers choose authentic operators with a commitment to sustainability.

Operators on the platforms will be able to showcase their sustainable approach by starting their journey with their Strive 4 Sustainability Scorecard result as well as their ECO or Sustainable Tourism Certification.

Chief Sustainability Officer at Big Red Group, Jemma Fastnedge advises “we are moving toward a travel industry where sustainable tourism is no longer a nice-to-have but an essential component of running a successful operation.

“As the largest marketplace of experiences across Australia and New Zealand, we recognise our responsibility to incorporate sustainability into our ethos and encourage tourism experience providers to do the same.

“Our partnership with Ecotourism Australia will help make sustainability information more accessible so businesses can responsibly share their sustainability achievements and travellers can book and spend according to their values.”

Ecotourism Australia Chief Executive Elissa Keenan adds “to see industry leader Big Red Group seek opportunities to build sustainability capacity through our program is incredible. Their support to showcase operators who are making a difference and ensuring their customers can see those sustainability credentials, is a significant commitment and a true demonstration of one of Australia’s largest tourism organisations to ‘walk the talk’ on sustainability.

“Sustainability is no longer a theme or a trend, it is a critical part of any business. The expectations of travellers are rapidly changing – they want to choose an experience committed to minimising environmental impact, supporting culture and community, and that they may even spend more to ensure an authentic, sustainable and responsible travel experience.

“We also know that more and more visitors are actively looking for authentic experiences backed by credible brands, particularly those holding a valid, credible and current certification or can clearly demonstrate the actions they are taking to improve in this space. Travellers want to be able to easily identify operators who will deliver the experience they are expecting.

“As Big Red Group’s supply chain makes strides to incorporate sustainability practices based on their comprehensive Strive 4 Sustainability Scorecard report, we look forward to seeing them progress toward achieving global best practice sustainability certification through our ECO and Sustainable Tourism Certification programs.”

The Strive 4 Sustainability Scorecard, launched in late 2022, is a pre-certification tool allowing businesses to see where they are at on their sustainability journey by measuring their practices against the four pillars of sustainability: sustainable management, environmental impacts, socio-economic impacts, and cultural impacts.

Businesses on the Big Red Group’s platforms that have completed the Strive 4 Sustainability Scorecard will have the option to display an icon on their listing indicating they have a score of 50% or more.

For businesses that progress to achieving global best practice sustainability standards through Ecotourism Australia’s ECO and Sustainable Tourism Certification programs, they will soon have the opportunity to display their certification on their listing.

The Sustainable Tourism Certification program, launched in late 2022, meets international best practice for sustainability, and the standard is recognised by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC). This new certification is for non-nature-based businesses to be recognised at global standard as ECO Certified operators (for nature-based operators) are and is part of Ecotourism Australia’s priority to make starting a journey to sustainability more accessible across the entire industry.

More information on Big Red Group at www.thebigredgroup.com.au/

Read about sustainability at Big Red Group www.thebigredgroup.com.au/sustainability/ About Ecotourism Australia

More information on Ecotourism Australia at www.ecotourism.org.au/

Related Articles

1st March 2023 - Big Red Group partners with brochuresDM to expand hotel network across Victoria

23rd February 2023 - Big Red Group announces new partnership with global IT services company Cognizant

3rd February 2023 - Big Red Group partners with New Zealand online tour agent Everything Travel Group

28th October 2022 - Big Red Group opens new Gold Coast office following acquisition of Queensland brands

6th September 2022 - Big Red Group appoints Brent Rutherford to new role of Chief Technology Officer

11th August 2022 - Big Red Group appoints Jemma Fastnedge to new role of Chief Sustainability Officer

23rd March 2022 - Big Red Group partners with Destination Gold Coast to incentivise interstate visitors

4th February 2022 - Big Red Group develops partnerships to aid tourism recovery in North Queensland and NSW

4th April 2023 - Ecotourism Australia partnership sees sustainable tourism experiences showcased via ATDW

28th March 2023 - Ecotourism Australia certified business wins Sustainable Tourism Award

20th March 2023 - Ecotourism Australia certified businesses secure Qantas Australian Tourism Awards

2nd March 2023 - Accor Pacific seeks sustainability certification from Ecotourism Australia

7th December 2022 - Chief Executive highlights Ecotourism Australia’s 2022 achievements

20th November 2022 - Ecotourism Australia partners with Tourism Australia to launch new sustainable tourism program

14th October 2022 - Leading ecotourism businesses inducted into Ecotourism Australia’s 2022 Hall of Fame

4th February 2022 - Ecotourism Australia announces Elissa Keenan as new Chief Executive

25th November 2021 - Ecotourism Australia celebrates 30 years with a new vision

---

Support our industry news service
We hope that you value the news that we publish so while you're here can we ask for your support?

As an independent publisher, we need reader support for our industry news gathering so ask that - if you don't already do so - you back us by subscribing to the printed Australasian Leisure Management magazine and/or our online news.