I’ve just got back from a few action-packed days in sunny Mallorca, where I had the pleasure of spending time with more than 100 of the Personal Travel Agents at Co-operative Travel during their annual overseas conference.

These hard-working homeworkers caught up with head office, suppliers and each other in a frenetic and fun environment, which gave me the chance to talk to them about how we are helping to protect destinations through our research, projects and training, and the value we can add, given that sustainable tourism is very high on customer agendas these days.

It was heartening to hear so much positive feedback about our partnership, and that many of the PTAs were pleased to be able to offer their customers the chance to donate and support our initiatives when making their booking.

We rely so much on the support of the travel industry and its customers; Cooperative Travel is one of our longest-standing supporters and really understands the importance of safeguarding destination environments and communities.

Travel agents are ideally placed to influence customer decisions and ‘make or break’ the sustainability impacts of a holiday.

There is a huge opportunity, both to improve tourism impacts and grow customer loyalty, by swotting up on sustainable products and encouraging guests to venture out of their hotels and into communities.

We’ll be looking at ways to make this easier for agents in the coming months, so watch this space!