Travel site plants tree for every booking

Upmarket online travel portal Luxury Explorer is launching a responsible travel initiative that it claims is “truly carbon neutral”.

The portal, which launched last year, promises it will plant a tree for every night that is booked using its site.

It will also calculate and plant the appropriate number of trees to offset emissions from flights booked through its First Class service.

Luxury Explorer founder and chairman Peter Matthews says too many travel brands are merely paying lip service to combating carbon emissions.

He adds that travel brands are transparent in their approach to being environmentally responsible.

Under the scheme, trees will be planted in one of Luxury Explorer’s own designated woods, the first of which is located in the UK, with further sites to be established abroad.

The brand leases the woodlands, with 700 trees per acre, and has full responsibility for their management.

Matthews adds: “We wanted to offset carbon emissions with a transparent audit trail. This policy is more effective than buying carbon offsets from an unknown third party, not knowing whether the trees are ever planted.”

The policy will also ensure that if any trees are felled to help maintain the woods, the timber will be used responsibly. For example, the site is planning to launch a range of products such as furniture, picture frames and jewellery.

Matthews says the trees will never be burned, meaning the carbon will remain locked in the timber.

Each tree planted by Luxury Explorer will be tagged with customers’ names and visiting rights are offered as part of the initiative.