Amadeus’s Travel4Impact Goes Global as Greenwashing Cases Make Headlines

Amadeus, the travel technology giant, is offering a program that provides subsidized sustainability training for small and medium enterprises in the tourism industry to the Americas for the first time. 

The Spanish company has run the program Travel4Impact in Spain for Europeans for the last three years. What’s new is the program will now also accept applications from companies in the Americas. Applications close on April 30.

The program taps into a general trend toward positive-impact travel by offering C-level executives from small and medium companies a fully funded, six-month training and tutoring program taught by professors at IE University, or Universidad Instituto de Empresa, a Spanish business school. The program will offer spots to around 40 companies and start in September 2024.

The program aims to help companies incorporate sustainable practices and digital strategies into their business models and provides a network of professionals and companies making similar efforts.

“People want to travel, but they want to leave a positive impact,” said Poonam Rawat-Hahne, founder and CEO of Fernweh Fair Travel, in a webinar run by Amadeus on Tuesday. Rawat-Hahne added that she saw a niche for travel operators and agents wanting to take social impact into account increase after the pandemic.

“That niche exists,” said Jake Haupert, CEO of the Transformational Travel Council. “It’s at the bedrock of why we travel — those experiences, those opportunities to connect and learn from others are instrumental.” 

Greenwashing Cases

In recent months, greenwashing cases in the travel industry have made headlines. A Dutch court found the airline KLM had put out a misleading advertising campaign that hyped up the company’s environmental image. 

Booking.com ended its “Travel Sustainable” program, highlighting sustainable properties, in March after the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets said the program “was a possibly misleading sustainability claim.”

“This is a really positive sign of our industry,” says Haupert of these cases. “That these things are happening now. People are going to be thinking a little bit differently before they go to market and make certain claims.”

The Amadeus-backed course changes each year based on the needs of the participants. In 2023, the syllabus addressed the implications of emerging technologies for the industry and specific companies and how to apply circular economic principles.

Following the completion of the course, participants can continue attending future sessions on topics like artificial intelligence and net zero policies.

The program doesn’t appear to lead companies to achieving any specific certifications schemes.

“Our objective at Travel4Impact is to amplify the impact of small businesses by promoting a purpose-driven innovation ecosystem,” an Amadeus spokesperson said.