Destination Climate Champions is the first climate action training course available free of charge to Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) and National Tourism Organisations (NTOs), thanks to generous sponsorship from Expedia Group.
The course aims to equip participants with climate literacy and empower them to lead positive change. Participants gain essential knowledge about climate change and tourism, an action plan, and access to a network of similar organisations around the world with whom they can share solutions, including through three peer-facilitated workshops. The online course is self-paced and consists of eight modules covering everything from creating a climate action plan to preparing your marketing strategy for the future. Each module lasts around one to two hours, with additional time needed for applied learning tasks. The Travel Foundation also offers additional training sessions and tailored advice as an optional add-on. By the end of the course, destinations should be ready to create their own climate action plan.
This year, the program has been piloted with over forty DMOs, organized into four cohorts: Europe, the US Pacific Northwest and Canada, New Zealand, and the South Pacific. Feedback gathered from pilot participants highlighted that the program provides them with the knowledge and tools needed to develop or improve their organizational climate action plan, breaking down a large, complex topic into manageable, bite-sized pieces. Participants reported benefits including:
Increased confidence in your message by engaging stakeholders in action.
Ability to strengthen your business case for climate action and justify the need to invest in it.
Learning and building connections with other destinations facing similar challenges.
“We are delighted to have partnered with the Travel Foundation to launch the Destination Climate Champions programme. Forty DMOs from around the world have joined as pilot participants in 2024, and nearly 50 more have started the course since December, demonstrating strong interest in this offering,” said Aditi Mohapatra, Vice President, Global Social Impact and Sustainability at Expedia Group. “Adapting to climate change requires a collective effort across the travel industry. At Expedia Group, we are committed to advancing our mission of making travel a force for good – this includes our work at the destination, partner and traveller level. Through the Destinations Climate Champions programme, we are proud to equip DMOs with the resources they need to better support the complex issue of climate and promote responsible tourism.”
Jeremy Sampson, CEO of the Travel Foundation, said: “The launch of our new Destination Climate Champions training programme comes at a crucial time for tourism, with an urgent need to transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient industry that protects destinations’ livelihoods and futures. Destination management organisations are uniquely placed to lead this change by bringing together tourism’s many stakeholders, identifying local needs and understanding the key risks to their tourism economy, place and people. This programme helps destination leaders gain critical knowledge and skills related to climate action and helps tourism professionals from organisations of all shapes and sizes understand how climate change is affecting their destination and what they need to do about it.”
The Travel Foundation has established itself as one of the leading entities supporting destinations in climate action planning and capacity building (including collaboration with Visit Finland, Visit Scotland, Honduras, Canarias and others) and was one of the co-authors of the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism. The non-profit organisation has used its extensive experience in climate action for destinations to create this course.
Fuente: Travel Foundation.