Canadian Affair and our parent company Transat (one of the largest integrated tourism companies in the world and Canada's holiday travel leader) were both awarded Travelife certification at a ceremony at World Travel Market in London in November 2018.
We are proud to be the first major international tour operator to be awarded this international certification for the full range of our activities. It highlights all the longstanding efforts we have made to be a responsible and sustainable tour operator.
To be awarded and maintain our Travelife Certified status, a world-leading certification for tourism companies, we must comply with more than 200 criteria covering our workplace practices, product range, business partners, and customers.
Twelve years ago, we joined in Transat's approach to become a model of sustainable tourism. In the process, we strengthened our environmental management and our social engagement, trained our teams on the importance of sustainable development, retooled our operations to better address our customers' concerns, and urged our partners to implement sustainability practices.
Along with Transat and its other subsidiaries, we have been committed to sustainable development since 2006, with multiple initiatives in environmental stewardship and heritage protection, efforts to thwart child-sex tourism, and collaborations with communities.
Together we have also established policies recognizing and highlighting sustainability certifications by our hotelier partners, adopted a code of conduct for tourism service providers, and created volunteering and humanitarian leave programs for our employees.
Travelife certification is accredited by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, and also complies with the ISO 26000 Corporate Social Responsibility Standard, which puts forward guidelines on environment, human rights, and labour relations.
Find out more about Transat's responsible tourism program here: transat.com/corporate-responsibility
Find out more about Travelife Certification here: www.travelife.org