Green Travel Hub 'offsets' flight bookings

Tuesday 1 April 2008

Flight Search Technology

Online travel agent (OTA) Rezhub.com has launched a new Green Travel Hub search facility in a bid to make itself the cutting edge in environmentally friendly travel.

Offering direct flight and hotel bookings, the new product provides a green rating alongside the accommodation it takes bookings for, compiling a rating on the basis of water recycling policy, energy efficiency drives and a host of other 'green' criteria.

Acknowledging that flights themselves entail a heavy carbon footprint, the site avoids green rating the carriers it takes bookings for, but does guarantee eco-users peace of mind by promising to donate part of the booking fee to a green organisation.

In a move that echoes a new direction being taken in the air travel industry, RezHub's new product also allows users to click through for carbon offsetting options, providing a further means of justifying a carbon-heavy flight.

Spanish airline Clickair recently took a lead in offsetting by joining up to the United Nations' Plant the Planet programme, which will allow passengers to offset their air miles by donating money toward the planting of a new forest near its Barcelona headquarters.

RezHub's Green Travel Hub offers users both Clickair-style reactive offsetting and the choice a proactive strategy, involving donations toward investment in renewable energies.

An alternative strategy has been pioneered by UK low cost airline Flybe, which recently introduced eco-labelling for its aircraft, displaying a full range of environmental indicators during the ticketing process.