DER Touristik and Lufthansa Group are expanding their cooperation to meet the challenges in the field of climate and environmental protection. Within the framework of a strategic partnership, the tour operator is to purchase sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from the German company.
This fuel is made from biogenic waste, such as used cooking oils, and reduces carbon dioxide emissions by around 80% compared to conventional kerosene. With the PBS it has acquired, DER Touristik will provide its customers with more climate-friendly air travel using PBS at no additional cost. The costs of the SAF are borne by the tour operator.
In particular, DER Touristik uses SAF acquired by the Lufthansa Group to optimize the carbon footprint of certain products. These trips will be presented in DERTOUR Magalog (a mixture of magazine and catalog) which will be exhibited in September 2023 under the title «Conscious Travel«. For example, a 20% SAF quota will be introduced on Lufthansa’s scheduled 2024 flights featured in the Magalog.
This will decrease the passenger’s individual flight-related carbon dioxide emissions. These round trips include two individual DERTOUR trips to Ireland, where customers travel locally by public transport, as well as five guided small group trips to Albena on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, Menorca, Andalusia, Madeira, Lisbon and Porto.
By the end of 2024, selected Lufthansa Group services booked in addition in one of the sustainably certified hotels of the new DERTOUR Magalog will also invest 20% SAF to the flight system in charge of DER Touristik. Also, REWE Reisen in Germany and Billa Reisen in Austria will each develop two further sustainable vacation offers with Lufthansa Group flights in Europe in autumn 2023.
As part of the strategic alliance between DER Touristik and the Lufthansa Group, further measures are also planned that will sensitize travelers and travel agency experts to the topic of SAF and make it feasible for them, including an expert study trip to Ireland for travel agencies. Last spring, the Lufthansa Group and DER Touristik jointly started more sustainable travel offers in an initial test run.
«We are very pleased to have DER Touristik by our side as a cooperation partner, which is committed to the sustainable transformation of the travel industry, is breaking new ground together with us and is raising awareness among its customers with future-oriented travel offers«, says Frank Naeve, Senior Vice President Global Markets & Stations of the Lufthansa Group.
«Our goal is to make tourism more climate-friendly and reduce emissions from holiday travel. A key lever for this is flying«, explains Dr. Ingo Burmester, CEO of DER Touristik Central Europe.
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