VIR's Commitment and Initiatives for Greater Sustainability in Tourism
“Nothing is perfect, but we’re on the right track. While the complex interconnections within the industry pose a challenge, they also present a major opportunity to drive innovation and change in the area of sustainability—provided we harness their potential.”
The Association of Online Travel Agencies (VIR) supports sustainable development in tourism and therefore promotes initiatives within the industry. Both within the VIR and in collaboration with its members, measures are being taken to ensure sustainable tourism.
That is why VIR tracks its total CO2 consumption using software. By measuring CO2 levels, it becomes clear which areas have the highest consumption and where there is potential for savings. When it comes to purchased services, there is little that can be done to reduce CO2 emissions. However, in areas where direct influence is possible, significant CO2 savings were achieved through VIR’s adjusted behavior. In particular, the choice of transportation and virtual participation in meetings had the greatest impact on CO2 consumption. As a result, VIR’s CO2 consumption related to business travel has been reduced by 85% compared to 2019.
In addition, the VIR, together with its members, established a steering group that has been meeting regularly since 2021 to discuss sustainable development in tourism and share valuable practical tips. The VIR is also a founding member of KlimaLink, an initiative of Futouris e. V., which aims to provide the travel industry with digital data on greenhouse gas emissions based on a reliable, uniform standard. Participation in the #impulse4travel manifesto is part of the VIR’s commitment to sustainability.
The VIR is also deeply committed to the principles of the circular economy and resource-efficient practices. In 2022, the VIR therefore held its established VIR Online Innovation Days entirely paper-free, utilizing a hybrid platform instead, offering workshops on the three dimensions of sustainability, and ultimately even achieving carbon neutrality by offsetting the CO2 emissions from all event activities. This is how the idea arose to make bags for the sponsors out of a banner from the VIR Online Innovation Days.
In addition, the team works primarily remotely and relies mainly on digital tools for both internal and external communication.
VIR Sustainability Steering Group
To best safeguard the interests of the diverse range of companies organized under the Verband Internet Reisevertrieb e.V., the Sustainability Steering Group was established in 2021. Its goal is to bring together input from all members on how to make tourism more sustainable and to jointly develop further projects. Another focus is on creating a dedicated communication platform to ensure a continuous exchange of ideas, as well as to initiate surveys and initiatives.
The #impulse4travel Manifesto
In 2025, tourism—as a shaper of the future and of living spaces —will lead the way toward an open and sustainable world: This bold vision is one of the core messages of impulse4travel, an industry-wide initiative involving over 300 stakeholders from the tourism sector. The resulting manifesto was presented by the initiators, Realizing Progress and the Verband Internet Reisevertrieb e.V. (VIR), back in 2020 as part of a Future Day event, and since then they have been advocating for sustainable tourism projects in various ways. Five years after the first manifesto, we have once again looked toward the future of tourism. This has resulted in a vision for tourism in 2030.
Drawing on the experience and knowledge of a broad tourism community, #impulse4travel highlights new avenues for action in the tourism sector across eight key areas. These include: tourism as a shaper of the future, sustainability and appreciation as opportunities for future-oriented action, a consistent focus on values as the basis for market orientation, genuine openness and networking in all relationships, ethical shaping of socio-technical development, embracing new forms of work and travel, employees as the cornerstone of change, and tourism as a political advisor and shaper.
Travel Analysis: Current Key Figures on Vacation Demand
In collaboration with the market research institute FUR Reiseanalyse the Association of Internet Travel Sales (VIR) takes a comprehensive annual look back at tourism demand in the German source market and provides an outlook on the vacation plans of the German population for the current year. The topic of sustainability is playing an increasingly central role, so it is listed as a separate category in the VIR Data & Facts on the online travel market. In addition, we jointly organize various events on this topic.
Partnership between VIR and KlimaLink
Partnership with KlimaLink
The KlimaLink association is an initiative founded as part of the industry project “Climate-Conscious Travel,” in which the VIR is also represented as a founding member. In this project, led by Futouris members in cooperation with the Institute for Sustainable Tourism GmbH and the associations DRV, ÖRV, and SRV, work has begun on developing a standard for calculating the carbon footprint of travel. The further development of this standard and the future implementation and system integration of the developed carbon footprint calculation method into the tourism industry’s IT infrastructure are to be managed primarily by an independent organization—KlimaLink.
The travel industry should be empowered to report all tourism-related services using accurate emissions figures based on a uniform calculation standard. To this end, the necessary emissions data must be centrally available to all companies in the travel industry. The association’s purpose is to further develop CO2e calculation standards and to make emissions data available digitally.
