Expedia Group joins Prince Harry's Travalyst sustainable travel coalition

Travalyst has brought in another major online travel partner to its pact of brands attempting to bring about responsible and sustainable travel.

Expedia Group will sit alongside arch-rival Booking Holdings, Trip.com Group, Skyscanner, Tripadvisor, Google and Visa in the coalition of companies first created by Prince Harry, The Duke Of Sussex in September 2019 .

Google joined the organization in 2021 , with the rest considered founding members.

Travalyst considers the addition of Expedia Group to the collective as a "major milestone" for the coalition, given the size of the business and range of brands it has in the portfolio (Vrbo, Expedia, Hotels.com, Travelocity etc.).

CEO Sally Davey says: "Since its inception, Travalyst’s mission has been to transform travel into a wholly positive impact industry. Driven by data and the core belief that travel is a force for good, Expedia Group’s platforms and data will enable Travalyst to help more travellers make better choices for themselves and the planet."

The addition of Expedia Group comes a week after Travalyst unveiled arguably its biggest strategic move so far: an aviation sustainability framework to collect and display emissions data .

Skyscanner and Google will be first to implement the aviation sustainability framework across their platforms with other coalition members Booking.com, Trip.com Group and Tripadvisor to roll them out later.

Alongside the implementation of the framework, Google has published a Travel Impact Model for emissions estimates and will act as a technology provider to help other platforms display carbon estimates.

Google last year also unveiled sustainability initiatives including an eco-certified badge for hotels, meetings standards from independent organizations such as Green Key or EarthCheck.

Expedia Group and Booking Holdings have become the two lightning rods for campaigners looking to push the industry to take more responsibility in the climate crisis agenda.

Speaking at The Phocuswright Conference in November 2021 , Jeremy Sampson, CEO of The Travel Foundation , said the likes of the major online travel agencies should stop spending billions of dollars on marketing and do something worthwhile on the sustainability discussion instead.