The Co-operative Travel launched its own tour operation in July 2009 to bring customers a specific holiday collection containing their favourite hotels and resorts. The Co-operative Travel forms a part of The Co-operative Group and has a history of corporate responsibility.

As part of our commitment to sustainability we feature 11 Travelife accredited properties within our brochure and are committed to a target of increasing this number to at least 25 by the end of 2010. It is important that our customers who wish to try and address the challenge of how to minimise the environmental and social impacts of their holiday, have the option of doing so.

As part of The Co-operative Group our commitment to sustainability is high on our agenda. We are involved in a number of projects that aim to shape the future of tourism. We were a key supporter of Overland Heaven and Tourism 2023. Overland Heaven aims to make low carbon overland travel between the UK and Europe more accessible. Tourism 2023 aims to help the UK outbound tourism industry prepare for the impacts of climate change, waste security, a growing and ageing global population, an increase in the cost of resources and political instability. We are a major supporter of the Travel Foundation to support communities in holiday destinations worldwide by investing in sustainable tourism initiatives. In conjunction with the Travel Foundation we are in the process of working up an innovative project to link agricultural co-operatives with local hotel supply chains in Turkey. In 2009 we piloted a unique education programme, The Greener Travel award, which teaches children about responsible tourism. In 2010 we are running this education programme again with a further 50 schools. The Co-operative Group works with Climate Care, an organisation dedicated to combating climate change to provide our customers with an easy way to counteract the impact their flight has on the environment.