A decade of sustainable transformation lies ahead of us. The economy has a decisive role to play. And of course, TUI as a leading travel group also sees its own responsibility in this process and wants to be pioneer in the industry in terms of sustainability: we will strengthen the positive effects of tourism in the destinations and at the same time further reduce the environmental impact of travel.

Every tenth employee worldwide works in the travel and tourism industry. Like no other industry, tourism improves social and environmental standards, provides education and promotes development and prosperity – especially in emerging and developing countries. We need to preserve and develop these positive effects of tourism. Furthermore, we need to significantly reduce our environmental footprint. Our industry is responsible for a total of around eight percent of global CO₂ emissions.

The key question is: How can we reduce our emissions in line with the Paris Climate Agreement by 2030 and be a Net Zero company by 2050 at the latest? We provide concrete answers with our new TUI sustainability agenda, which was developed in a joint exchange between the Group Executive Committee, our sustainability experts, teams in all business areas and external scientists. The agenda addresses the most important challenges the industry and the world are currently facing. It contains a large number of concrete initiatives to save resources, reduce emissions and strengthen the positive social and economic effects of tourism.

In the coming years, we will significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. In order to achieve our goals, our experts have developed ambitious reduction plans for cutting emissions by 2030. The independent Science Based Targets (SBTi) initiative, which is supported by the United Nations Global Compact, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), among others, has reviewed and confirmed our reduction targets; according to the SBTi’s strict catalogue of requirements, they are in line with the latest findings of climate science. We are therefore operating the first holiday airline, the first cruise company and one of the first holiday hotel brands with SBTi-validated reduction targets. The individual targets in figures:

The sustainable transformation of our industry will only succeed if we think in terms of value chains and include the vacation destinations as true partners in our plans. With this in mind, we are developing Rhodes into a beacon for sustainable vacation destinations together with the government of the southern Aegean and local stakeholders -the national Greek government is also involved. Together, we are making an important contribution to a more sustainable tourism. Other destinations can later benefit from the findings on topics such as sustainable mobility, green energy, waste prevention and environmental education. 

TUI’s new sustainability agenda is based on three key areas: People, Planet and Progress. For these areas, we will actively shape the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainability with pioneering initiatives and ambitious targets. The areas at a glance:

• People – Empower to drive development: We want to ensure that people in destinations benefit from tourism. Especially in emerging and developing countries, tourism contributes significantly to development and prosperity. With the independent TUI Care Foundation initiated by TUI, we implement projects around the world that strengthen economic participation and local education. In March 2023, for example, the Foundation announced the Tourism for Development Fund in cooperation with the UNWTO: 10 million euros will be made available by 2030 to promote sustainable tourism in the world’s least developed countries (LDCs). 
• Planet – Reduce our footprint: By 2050 at the latest, we will achieve net zero emissions in all business areas as well as supply chains. As an interim step, we have set specific emission reduction targets for our airlines, cruise lines and hotels by 2030, which have been reviewed and validated by the independent SBTi. In addition, we aim to change the way we use the planet’s natural resources and evolve into a circular economy company. 
• Progress – Accelerate the transformation: We want to use our scale in the industry to increase the positive social and environmental impact of our holiday offerings. Together with our local partners, we will develop a sustainable business model that empowers customers to make sustainable choices at every step of their journey. 

Why are we convinced that we will achieve our emission reduction targets? Because sustainability has been part of our corporate DNA for decades. For example, TUI pioneered with the first sustainability department in the tourism industry 30 years ago. Since then, we have been working hard to reduce the environmental impact of our aircraft and cruise fleets, as well as our hotels, offices, and travel agencies. This includes multi-million-dollar investments in state-of-the-art aviation and cruise technologies to reduce emissions. Key performance indicators: