Independent charity dedicated to preventing harm to UK travellers announces latest Safer Tourism Pledge partner, recognising TUI’s excellent standards and commitment to travel safety

Independent charity, the Safer Tourism Foundation today announced that TUI, the world’s leading travel and leisure company has signed up to the Safer Tourism Pledge, further cementing the travel company’s commitment to customer safety.

The Safer Tourism Pledge is a set of commitments, developed in partnership with the travel industry, articulating a stringent approach to traveller risk, health and safety. It was created to recognise and identify those businesses that not only have excellent safety systems and protocols in place, but also put collaboration ahead of competition when it comes to customer safety. Safer Tourism reviews the safety management systems of companies wishing to sign up to the Pledge, and Pledge companies in turn agree to adhere to the Safer Tourism Pledge’s six commitments:

1. Share Safer Tourism’s mission – Pledge partners fully support the Safer Tourism Foundation’s mission to save lives and reduce preventable injury and harm to travellers while on holiday
2. Safety excellence – Pledge partners will do all they can, within reason, to keep travellers safe and well when travelling and demand the same high standards of those who work with them
3. Advise and inform – Safer Tourism Pledge partners provide travellers with practical advice and information to help them take responsibility for their own safety and wellbeing while travelling
4. Highly responsive – Pledge partners want to hear about genuine concerns travellers have for their safety so that issues can be resolved quicky and problems addressed and fixed
5. Sharing data and best practices – Safer Tourism Pledge partners commit to working collaboratively and sharing travel safety knowledge, for the benefit of everyone who travels
6. Influence for improvement – Pledge partners work with providers around the world and commit to leveraging their influence to improve health and safety standards wherever they operate

Marc Jordan, Director of Security, Health & Safety, Crisis and BCM at TUI said, ”Our customers are at the heart of everything we do at TUI and this starts with their safety. The Safer Tourism Pledge partnership further cements our drive for improvement in the safety culture across the industry.

“Everyone at TUI continues to lead the way in the safety and security for all travellers so they can enjoy their well-deserved holidays.”

Safer Tourism Foundation’s CEO, Katherine Atkinson said, “We are absolutely delighted that TUI has signed up as a Safer Tourism Pledge partner. TUI have been great collaborators since the charity’s inception, sharing their anonymised travel safety incident data with us and participating in many of Safer Tourism’s workshops over the years.  TUI was a key member of the group of travel companies which helped to develop and shape the Pledge, ensuring that the Pledge commitments accurately reflect excellence in travel safety systems, whilst recognising travellers’ responsibility for their own safety. So we’re delighted to have them on board as official Safer Tourism Pledge partners, collaborating with us and with other travel companies to help keep all travellers safe.”

The announcement comes on the heels of Safer Tourism Foundation’s recent rebrand, with a new logo, branding and website. The new branding also includes the Safer Tourism Badge, allowing travellers to easily identify and recognise those travel businesses that have signed up to the Safer Tourism Pledge.

The badge reflects a travel brand’s commitment both to customer safety as part of broader ESG goals, and acts as a reminder to travellers about their own personal responsibility in staying safe.

To find out more about the Safer Tourism Foundation and the Safer Tourism Pledge, please visit new www.safertourism.org.uk

ENDS

Notes to editors:

• Katherine Atkinson is available for interviews and can share more about the charity’s remit and aims.
• For a full list of Safer Tourism Pledge partners, please contact Stephanie Boyle boyle@safertourism.org.uk

About the Safer Tourism Foundation

The Safer Tourism Foundation is a registered independent charity that aims to save lives and reduce preventable injuries, illness and harm to UK travellers, both at home and abroad. The Safer Tourism Foundation works in collaboration with a wide range of partners to develop practical solutions to help UK travellers stay safe and well when they are on holiday. We are building an evidence base of travel safety incidents accidents, based on data shared by leading travel operators and organisations, and use this to prioritise and evaluate our work, raising awareness and encouraging behavioural change.

The charity was born out of the deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning of Bobby and Christi Shepherd, who died whilst on holiday in Corfu in 2006. Their mother, Sharon Wood, worked with Thomas Cook to set up the charity in 2016, with Thomas Cook providing the initial funding.

 About TUI UK & Ireland

TUI, the leading global travel and leisure company is the business behind First Choice, Marella Cruises and Crystal Ski Holidays brands, as well as TUI Cities, TUI Lakes & Mountains, TUI Tours, TUI River Cruises, and its leisure hotel brand TUI BLUE. TUI also provides thousands of experiences in 100 countries through TUI Musement, one of the world’s leading tours and activities digital platforms.

TUI UK & Ireland has a team of over 11,000 employees and its full holiday programme serves millions of customers each year. Across the world they have over 4,500 destination team employees taking care of guests on their holidays.

Its airline, TUI Airways, operates to over 79 destinations in 33 countries with 68 aircraft from 22 UK airports.

TUI’s retail estate is made up of 315 retail stores including TUI superstores where TUI’s travel experts take care of all customers’ needs.