Our principles
Travelife has been developed in close cooperation with the travel sector and sustainability experts. The programme continues to be guided by a number of core principles:
- Sector-specific – criteria, training and tools are developed specifically for tour operators and other travel companies.
- Practical and realistic – requirements and implementation approaches take account of what travel companies can manage directly and where they can exercise influence.
- Comprehensive – Travelife addresses environmental, social, economic and responsible business aspects of sustainability.
- Management-based – sustainability is integrated into policies, responsibilities, objectives, action planning, monitoring and reporting rather than treated as a collection of individual initiatives.
- Supply-chain oriented – the programme extends beyond the company's own operations to its relationships with suppliers, destinations and other business partners.
- Knowledge-based – training and capacity building support the development of sustainability knowledge and competence throughout the company.
- Development-oriented – companies are expected to maintain compliance while continuously developing and improving their sustainability practices.
- Independent and evidence-based – Travelife recognition is based on established criteria, objective evidence and independent assessment.
- Transparent – the applicable criteria, recognition levels and essential elements of the assessment system are publicly available.
- International – Travelife provides a common framework for travel companies worldwide, supported by regional expertise and multilingual resources.
- Collaborative – Travelife works with tourism companies, associations, destinations, experts, civil society and other stakeholders to strengthen sustainability practices across the sector.
- Efficient – shared tools, criteria and supplier approaches help reduce duplication and support greater consistency across tourism supply chains.
