Corporate travellers shun environmental issues

The region’s corporate travel bookers are ignoring important sustainability and environmental issues when making their travel plans, according to a pre-show survey conducted by YouGovSiraj on behalf of The Business Travel Show Dubai.

Less than one in five of 100 business travel organisers surveyed said they would go out of their way to use suppliers that minimised employee carbon footprints whenever possible, regardless of cost and two-thirds did not consider this issue or were unaware of it.

Around one third claimed their company sometimes opted to pay the extra fee to cover the carbon offset on flights and under one fifth said they thought their company would opt to do this in the next year.

When asked if they planned trips according to a carbon calculator, less than a third were willing to consider it. However, 12% claimed to have applied the concept of ‘personal carbon trading’ when booking business travel.

“The Green statistics prove that more needs to be done to educate companies on the environmental cost of their regular business travel. This will certainly be one area of focus for us at The Business Travel Show Dubai, where we aim to lead by example,” said Sally Maltby, event director for the show’s organiser Centaur Exhibitions.

The Business Travel Show Dubai, which takes place in Dubai from October 20-21 at Madinat Arena, has already signed an agreement to offset its carbon emissions with Carbon Capital Markets, a leading carbon trader and fund manager. This is the second year that the Dubai travel show and Carbon Capital Markets have worked together to offset the show’s carbon footprint.

Emissions to be offset will include those generated by the venue building, courtesy diesel buses used to transport delegates to and from the desert car parking area, the speaker/moderators’ personal travel to and from the show and event staff.

Visitors and exhibitors at the show will also be encouraged to offset their own travel.

The Business Travel Show Dubai survey was conducted via an online questionnaire sent out to all parties expressing an interest in and attending the show in 2008.

The Business Travel Show Dubai is a joint venture between Centaur Media Plc and Dnata World of Events and takes place at the Madinat Jumeriah Arena from October 20 to 21.

Visitors can register online to attend for free by visiting www.businesstravelshow.ae and clicking on ‘registration’.

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