From October 8-9, 2015, AIDA Cruises hosted the Futouris e.V. strategy conference. The sustainability initiative is sponsored by the German Travel Association (DRV). Germany’s leading cruise line, AIDA Cruises, joined Futouris e.V. in 2012 with the aim of promoting sustainable development of tourism destinations in the areas of ecology, biodiversity, and sociocultural responsibility.

A focal subject at the Futouris strategy conference was exchange on organizing and promoting sustainable excursions. A trailblazer in this respect, AIDA Cruises shared its experiences with conference members and presented the results of the project “sustainable land excursions,” which was successfully completed in 2015.

In 2014, AIDA Cruises developed a standardized catalog of criteria for sustainable land excursions in partnership with Futouris e.V., the State Chancellery Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and the Leuphana University in Lüneburg. Whether a city stroll through Barcelona, hiking in Norway, or a bike tour through Athens – all AIDA excursions that fulfill the social, ecological, and cultural criteria are marked with a tree symbol. On MyAIDA, guests can inform themselves and book these excursions. AIDA Cruises currently offers 138 sustainable land excursions along with 230 bike and pedelec trips at 160 destinations. These excursions were assessed and developed based on the catalog of criteria. Starting now, the catalog of criteria is available to all Futouris members.

“Our goal was to create a transparent basis of comparison for the sustainability of the individual excursion offers and to base the evaluation on measurable and scientific criteria. Marking our sustainable excursions helps guests make eco-friendly choices,” says Monika Griefahn, Chief Sustainability Officer at AIDA Cruises.

“AIDA and Futouris have successfully demonstrated how sustainable land excursions can be organized and implemented. Other members and destinations can benefit from this expertise as well,” says Hasso von Düring, chairman of Futouris e.V.

Further topics at the strategy conference included the exchange of best practices for saving water on cruise ships and at hotels, measuring and reducing the tourism industry’s contribution to climate change, and marking and promoting sustainable products. The Futouris members also discussed challenges and opportunities for sustainable nutrition and responsible management of food in tourism.