Communicating with stakeholders
Talking and listening
The success of our CSR strategy depends on the quality of our communication. We need to raise awareness and understanding among key stakeholders and partners of what CSR is, and what individuals and groups can do to make ‘a world of difference’.
Good communication is two-way. We recognise that we don’t have all the answers, and we welcome feedback from all our stakeholders. So we’ve set up two contact email addresses to encourage feedback and ideas: csr@thomascook.com and responsiblebusiness@thomascook.com.
You’ll find more on communication below, under the following headings:
- Who are our stakeholders?
- Customers
- Employees
- Suppliers
Who are our stakeholders?
- Customers
- Employees
- Investors
- Suppliers
- Local communities – in our source countries and in the destinations where we operate
- Industry partners
- Governments – in our source countries and in the destinations where we operate
- Non Governmental Organisations
- Experts in responsible travel.
Customers
We need the support of our customers in all that we do: often it’s their actions that can make the real differences, especially in the destinations we visit. So we need to tell them about the issues in a straightforward way, let them know what we’re doing to address them, and enlist their help where we know they can make a difference.
We achieve this by giving them information on sustainable travel and the Travel Foundation:
- In brochures – all our brochures now feature information about the Travel Foundation and tips on how to be a responsible traveller
- On our websites – our Group CSR policy is available on our websites, as well as information on the Travel Foundation and tips for travelling responsibly
- On our aircraft – our inflight magazines contain pages dedicated to sustainable tourism
- In resort – our information folders contain tips for responsible travellers plus a colour poster supplied by the Travel Foundation
- In guidebooks – our guidebooks contain a page about the work of the Travel Foundation.
We want to continue expanding this information, and in 2009 we’ll be developing our customer communications further – in particular our websites.
Employees
To achieve our goals we need to put CSR at the heart of our business – and the heart of our business is our employees. We need them to understand what CSR is and why it’s important for the company and for them. We also value their input and ideas to help us enhance our CSR performance.
To stimulate the two-way flow of ideas and information we aim to form a Thomas Cook Responsible Business Forum, which will regularly bring together participants from departments across the business.
We also update our employees through:
- Internal communications – emails and staff newsletters, both printed and electronic
- Employee magazines – both printed and electronic
- Employee intranet – for UK, Northern Europe and Continental Europe employees
- Inductions – information is included in the joining handbook
- Training courses – for different departments throughout the company
- Distribution of Travel Foundation communications.
Suppliers
Our supply chain is a key part of our CSR programme. We work with businesses around the world. Because many are also suppliers to other tour operators, we work with our industry partners on many of our strategies to improve suppliers’ sustainability. By working together, we can achieve greater and more robust change.
We communicate with suppliers on sustainability through the development of the Travelife Sustainability System, a one-stop resource for worldwide tourism businesses developed with the Federation of Tour Operators. It links businesses with providers of specific advice and solutions to help them improve their sustainability performance, and offers downloadable guidelines and information for all suppliers.
We are promoting the Sustainability System and the associated Travelife sustainability awards to all our suppliers. In the past two years:
- We wrote annually to hoteliers worldwide to tell them about the service and encourage them to register on the site and start assessing their sustainability
- Our trained Travelife award auditors visited more than 285 hotels
- We sent ‘hotel makeover’ packs to hotels across the world
- Our staff helped organise and took part in FTO roadshows in Egypt, Turkey, Andorra and the Caribbean to promote sustainability and tell suppliers about the benefits of improved environmental and social performance. These were attended by large numbers of suppliers.