29 September 2008

Operator plans to charge for brochures

A tour operator is to charge around Ã&#pound;1 for its holiday brochures in an effort to cut its carbon footprint.

The company, i-to-i, which specialises in trips where travellers participate in volunteering projects worldwide, is looking to charge a set fee for a print-on-demand travel brochure service with the customerââ¬â¢s fee going into a fund to support its overseas projects.

The costing structure has yet to be finalised, but if the trial proves popular, a bespoke, print-on-demand brochure could cost around Ã&#pound;1, plus postage.

The firm produced 131,500 brochures totalling 19,462,000 printed pages in the UK last year. It has put all its brochures online allowing users to read exactly the same content, enabling the company to save around 20 million pages of print a year.

But from November i-toi will trial the on-demand system allowing users to request specific brochure segments which are then printed bespoke and sent out by post. 

If this proves popular, the company will move to the charging option.

The operatorââ¬â¢s head of meaningful travel Mat Lewis said: ââ¬ÅâœIn the same way that supermarkets started charging for carrier bags ââ¬' and weââ¬â¢re seeing wastage being reduced there ââ¬' weââ¬â¢re looking to kick-start the same with holiday brochures.

ââ¬ÅâœIt has long been known in the travel industry that thereââ¬â¢s a lot of wastage in printed brochures ââ¬' too many are produced, far too many are binned and we need to do something about it.

ââ¬ÅâœWe carried out our own research and 96% of respondents support our efforts to reduce excessive printing, while just 14.3% said they would prefer a printed brochure over a download.

ââ¬ÅâœSo thatââ¬â¢s the direction weââ¬â¢d like to take the business in.  However, we appreciate that some holidaymakers will always want to flick through a brochure and feel the pages, so for those people weââ¬â¢re looking at a bespoke, paid-for option. This will still reduce printing as it will only be the relevant sections being produced and sent to the people who really do want them.

ââ¬Åâœi-to-i is responsible for a mere fraction of the 100 million brochures printed in the UK every year, but itââ¬â¢s a start, and if all holiday companies followed suit, collectively we could save a lot of wasted print and help the environment.ââ¬~

by Phil Davies 

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