Trip.com Launches “LESS Carbon Neutral Plan”

On July 27, Chinese travel services platform Trip.com released its “LESS-Carbon Neutral Plan,” pledging to gradually achieve carbon neutrality in its own operations, and to jointly launch at least 10,000 low-carbon travel products with its ecological partners. Several related implementation measures are reportedly underway at this time.

Trip.com said that LESS is an acronym for “Low carbon, Environmental protection, Save energy, Sustainable Development.” It will promote low-carbon travel knowledge through its website, app and stores, and drive 100 million people to participate in low-carbon sustainable travel practices.

For instance, Ctrip Business Travel has launched “Green Hotels” and “Green Flights” features. For air tickets, Trip.com and subsidiary Skyscanner have partnered with CHOOOSE, a climate technology company, to provide travelers with greener travel options to calculate and offset the carbon emissions generated by their flights. Ctrip Hotels supports hotels that do not actively provide disposable products.

For its vacation business, Trip.com has extensively cooperated with different types of partners to help the first five national parks open their global first tour program. With activities such as camping and trekking rapidly gaining popularity, Trip.com is also jointly developing products such as no-trace camping, green trekking and cycling with suppliers.

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Ctrip Car Rental advocates new energy vehicles for travel, and its annual orders for NEVs are growing at a rate of 140%. According to the current order volume assessment, new energy vehicles will reduce carbon emissions by about 10,000 tons in 2022 compared to traditional cars. The firm has also released “Trip.Loop” travel products.

In parallel with the launch of the LESS Carbon Neutral Program, Trip.com’s eco-tourism micro-documentary “Walking Green” officially launched its first episode. The film was jointly created by Trip.com and National Geographic of the US, with foreign journalist Mohamed Osama Mohamed Ragab as the host. Each episode involves traveling to a certain destination to find sustainable travel and lifestyle with local environmental experts and travel professionals.