Nordic Collection wins Travelife Certified
award for sustainability
Press Release
Londerzeel, Belgium, March 7, 2024
Nordic Collection wins Travelife Certified award for sustainability
Nordic Collection, one of the leading travel companies in Belgium and the Netherlands, received the Travelife Certified Award as the tenth company in Belgium. On top of that the Scandinavian sister brand Nordic was awarded as the 35th company in the Netherlands as well as as the 8th company in Germany yesterday. The award recognises Nordic Collection’s long-term efforts and leadership in sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility.
More than 200 sustainability criteria
To become Travelife Certified, travel companies must meet more than 200 criteria in the areas of office management, product offerings, international business partners and customer information. The Travelife standard covers the ISO 26000 Corporate Social Responsibility themes, including environment, biodiversity, human rights and labour relations, and is formally recognised as fully compliant with the UN-supported Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria.
“We are proud to partner with Travelife to make great progress in increasingly integrating sustainability into our organisation. Achieving this recognition is a great milestone and we will certainly continue to innovate further in terms of sustainability,” said Maarten Raes, CEO and founder of Nordic.
In recent years, the tourism industry worldwide has seen a shift towards more sustainable travel. Both tourists and tour operators are more aware of their ecological footprint and are taking steps to reduce it. These include an increased demand and supply of eco-friendly accommodations, sustainable means of transport and a preference for local and authentic experiences over mass tourism. According to a report by the World Travel Tourism Council (WTTC) and Trip.com, as many as 69% of travellers were already actively seeking sustainable travel options by 2022. 75% said they would look for sustainable alternatives in the future.
Sustainable initiatives
Nordic Collection is committed to sustainability through various initiatives such as offsetting the CO2 emissions of all their trips, a conscious selection process of sustainable partners, encouraging sustainable travel among their customers through useful tips to minimise the ecological footprint while travelling, and internal sustainability that is reflected in, for example, the use of eco/bio/local/fairtrade products, proper waste management and encouraging carpooling and the use of public transport among employees.
Naut Kusters, Travelife manager for tour operators says: “I am delighted to see that sustainability in the travel sector is gaining momentum. Nordic Collection’s award will inspire other companies in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany to follow the same path.”
About Nordic Collection
Nordic Collection is the organisation behind eight renowned travel brands, including Nordic, the specialist in travel to Scandinavia. Nordic was founded in 2008 by CEO Maarten Raes under the name ‘Nordic Info’. Since then, the company has experienced great growth and added several brands to its portfolio under the umbrella name Nordic Collection. Nordic Collection now has a total of eight brands with destinations all over the world: Nordic, Galtic, Atacama, MyHimalaya, Canada Travel Designers, Wild Alaska, Beyond Borders and FLY and BiKE.
About Travelife
Travelife is the leading international sustainability certification for the travel industry. Since 2012, more than 1500 tour operators have been trained in CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) and more than 500 tour operators worldwide received Travelife certification.
