Our Colleagues

Our aim is to make sustainable development tangible to each and every colleague within our business. We’ll do this by living our value of Responsible Leadership and involving and empowering our colleagues to take personal action in support of our company vision – Making Travel Experiences Special.

We communicate regularly about the progress we have made on our journey towards securing a sustainable future for our industry. We continue to build sustainability into our colleague inductions and training programmes, including development programmes for managers. Colleague volunteering is encouraged in many parts of our Company.

This year we can report:

• We have set up a network of sustainability champions
• 220 travel agencies have been trained on sustainable tourism in TUI Nederland
• 73% of businesses have training for colleagues on environmental and social issuesⁱⁱ
• 75 senior managers took part in our leadership programme, working with an ecotourism business in Costa Rica

Goal: Our sustainable development coordinators will have a thorough and growing understanding of sustainable development and will act as both internal and external ambassadors to promote TUI Travel’s activities. All of our colleagues will have a basic understanding of the issues to enable them to play a positive part in the Group’s commitments.

Board sponsor: Bill Logan, Group HR Director 

"73% of businesses have training for colleagues on environmental and social issuesⁱⁱ"

Communication plays a key part in engaging our colleagues with sustainable development. We provide regular updates using Group, Sector and business communication channels (i.e. intranets and newsletters), to update colleagues about ongoing sustainable development activities, and to highlight colleagues’ contributions.

Each Sector of our Group has a sustainable development coordinator with a remit to develop and implement sustainable development strategy within their Sector. This year, the Sector coordinators have appointed a network of champions to support them in the delivery of Group and Sector sustainable development strategy. Our sustainable development coordinators work as a network across the Group, also staying in touch through a collaborative online platform, sharing best practice and research. Sector sustainable development coordinators work with a network of sustainability champions and Green teams to promote the issues to our colleagues, and to create opportunities for our colleagues to take action.

"75 senior managers took part in our leadership programme, working with an ecotourism business in Costa Rica" 

Green Days
Throughout our businesses, Green Days provide an annual event where colleagues can take action, learn more about sustainable tourism, our strategy and goals in sustainable development, and what this means for them in their own role.

TUI Deutschland
In Germany, on Green Day, the reception area of the head office was transformed into a sustainable marketplace. Some 2,000 colleagues visited the area where they could taste locally grown, organic food, get tips for health and wellbeing, and even test their personal fitness and strength on an indoor water rower. Colleagues could also donate unwanted clothes to Oxfam, buy Fair Trade products, and learn about TUI Deutschland’s commitment to child protection in tourism. Talks on the day explained TUI Deutschland’s involvement in the sustainable tourism initiative Futouris and volunteering in the community.

TUI UK
To celebrate World Environment Day, Dermot Blastland, Managing Director for TUI UK & Ireland invited all colleagues to join him in making a pledge to do one thing to reduce their impact on the environment. In overseas destinations, World Environment Day was celebrated with a whole range of activities, involving our colleagues and our customers in resorts. Activities ranged from environmental themed children’s entertainment, competitions and prizes, to beach clean-ups, no-towel-change day and encouraging colleagues and customers to walk instead of taking taxis or driving during the day.

Colleague volunteering
Volunteering allows our colleagues to use their professional skills to make a difference, either in a local charity of their choice, or as part of an organised placement with one of our charity partners. In the UK, colleagues participated in our volunteering programme run with our charity partner The Travel Foundation. Our colleagues worked in pairs during a two week placement. Activities included designing a customer excursion to a tree nursery in Sri Lanka, implementing water and energy saving measures with hoteliers in Cyprus, and helping an underprivileged Mayan community produce and launch jungle jams for use in our Mexico hotels.

TUI Nederland takes sustainable tourism to travel agents
TUI Nederland was the first Dutch travel organisation to launch a sustainable tourism policy for its 220 travel agencies. During the year, the stores received training and practical information on sustainable tourism.

Managers work on Ecotourism business in Costa Rica
This year, 75 senior managers from across the Group had the opportunity to attend a four-day offsite development programme in Heliconias, Costa Rica. The programme was designed by Group Management Development working in collaboration with i-to-i, one of our Activity Sector businesses. Each group of managers completed building work for this small eco-tourism business in the rainforest. This was a live case study where managers applied the Group’s Managing for Value framework to identify opportunities that improved business processes and increased the long-term value generated by the business.

Senior managers work with an ecotourism business – Green Futures article (3 Mb PDF)

MD challenge
In the Specialist & Emerging Markets Sector, Managing Directors responded to a challenge to showcase how they had taken personal action or worked with their teams to bring the value of Responsible Leadership to life. For example,  the Managing Director of UK Specialist short haul brands (Meon, Citalia and Sovereign), volunteered and raised funds for charity “Food Works” which provides healthy tasty food for homeless or vulnerable people in London and across the UK, using excess food discarded by retailers and restaurants.

Family Holiday Association
Our colleagues have a history of supporting local charities and community organisations. The Family Holiday Association (FHA) is the TUI Travel PLC Board’s nominated charity. The FHA provides holidays to disadvantaged children and their families, helping over a thousand families every year. We have supported the charity for over 15 years, through company, colleague and customer donations. In 2008/09, a full-time Family Holiday Association Fundraising Liaison Manager was appointed in TUI UK & Ireland. www.fhaonline.org.uk

"2,000 colleagues attended TUI Deutschland’s Green Day"

"87% - the percentage of colleagues who agree that TUI Nordic is taking responsibility for the environment"

We have developed a number of core questions relating to Responsible Leadership and sustainable development that businesses and Sectors include in colleague opinion surveys. We also gather feedback from colleagues on sustainability issues through focus groups.

Our targets for colleague engagement focus on embedding our commitment to Responsible Leadership into our everyday processes, such as inductions, training courses and colleague communications. To read more about our policies (supporting diversity, reward & recognition and engaging our colleagues for long-term high performance) please see our Annual Report 2009. 

"100 sustainability champions were appointed and trained in the Specialist & Emerging Markets Sector"