Safer Tourism Foundation
ABTOT Associate
The Safer Tourism Foundation is an independent charity working to save lives and prevent serious harm and injury to UK travellers, at home and abroad.
Our aim is to help ensure everyone who travels on holiday, at home in the UK or abroad, stays safe and well. We are an independent foundation, led by a Board of Trustees and we do not represent a specific constituency or interest group.
The Foundation was established in 2016, ten years after the deaths of two children, Bobby and Christi Shepherd, who died from carbon monoxide poisoning whilst on holiday in Corfu in 2006. Bobby and Christi’s mother, Sharon Wood, worked with the travel industry to develop the Safer Tourism Foundation, as a positive legacy from this tragedy.
We want to reduce the health and safety risks affecting people travelling abroad. Whilst carbon monoxide poisoning is one of those risks, our remit is much broader and encompasses all potential risks to health and wellbeing that travellers face while on holiday. This includes risks related to transport, activities, allergic reactions, slips, trips and falls and personal safety.
The Safer Tourism Pledge
Traveller safety and security is our top priority – and the main reason the Safer Tourism Foundation was established. The Safer Tourism Pledge is a set of commitments made by travel providers articulating a stringent approach to traveller risk, health and safety.
The Safer Tourism Badge
We review travel brands to assess and validate their systems and processes keeping you safe and well on holiday. We expect rigour and excellence, without compromise. For those travel companies that meet our expectations we award the Safer Tourism badge.
Although nothing can fully guarantee your safety when travelling, the Safer Tourism badge lets you know that a company has excellent safety systems and protocols in place. It’s also an indication that the operator puts collaboration ahead of competition when it comes to safety.
By displaying the Safer Tourism badge, travel companies are demonstrating their commitment to saving lives, and reducing preventable harm, injury and serious illness to all travellers.
Put simply, wherever you see the badge, you can rest assured that we would be happy for our parents or children to book a trip with that travel operator.
The Pledge Commitments
Companies wishing to be assessed to become Safer Tourism Pledge partners must show us evidence, which we review and assess objectively, to demonstrate they meet the Pledge commitments in relation to traveller safety:
- Share our mission – Pledge partners fully support the Safer Tourism Foundation’s mission to save lives and reduce preventable injury, harm and illness to travellers while on holiday
- Safety excellence – Pledge partners will do all they can, within reason, to keep you safe and well when you are travelling and demand the same high standards of those who work with them, and on their behalf, in destination
- Advise and inform – No trip is entirely risk free – Safer Tourism Pledge partners provide you with practical advice and information to help you take responsibility for your own safety and wellbeing while travelling
- Highly responsive – If you have any genuine concern about your safety or that of other travellers, Safer Tourism Pledge partners want to hear about it so that issues can be resolved quicky and problems addressed and fixed
- Sharing data and best practices – While the travel sector promotes healthy competition, Safer Tourism Pledge partners commit to working collaboratively and sharing travel safety knowledge, for the benefit of everyone who travels
- Influence for improvement – Pledge partners work with providers in destinations around the world and commit to leveraging their influence to improve health and safety standards wherever they operate
The Traveller’s Pledge
All travel comes with a certain element of risk. And we know that safety and security are at the top of the list of priorities for the majority of travellers when planning their holidays. The Safer Tourism Pledge is one way that travel brands and operators are doing their bit to reduce risks to customers.
Many of the UK’s leading travel brands support the Safer Tourism Pledge to keep travellers safe. However, this doesn’t mean travellers can switch off entirely.
Despite everyone’s best efforts, accidents and illnesses can still happen. Travellers have a responsibility to inform themselves, remain vigilant and take ownership for what they need to reduce risks and keep themselves, their family and friends safe and well.