Riksja Travel has decided to only actively promote trips of 14 days or longer for destinations outside a flight range of 6,000 kilometers as of June 1. This decision was made to make a less negative impact on the environment, the company said in a statement. ‘At Riksja Travel, we believe that travel makes a big positive impact on the destinations, but in many cases the journey there has a negative impact. We have joined the climate agreement, which means that we have to make choices that sometimes chafe from a commercial point of view, but do make a big difference,” says Fenny Koppen, CEO of Riksja Travel.
“Our new flight policy is a concrete step towards reducing our carbon footprint and setting an example within the travel industry.” The flight range of 6,000 kilometers is calculated from a country’s main airport. For simplicity and consistency, Riksja has decided to use Amsterdam Airport (AMS) as a reference point for all entities in the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom. The website no longer lists itineraries for destinations outside the 6,000-kilometre range for less than 14 days, with exceptions such as Bhutan and Belize, where combination trips are necessary. Shorter trips can still be sold at the request of customers, but will not be actively promoted through the website, advertisements, or social media. “This initiative underlines the ambition to be a market changer in terms of responsible travel and environmental impact,” says Riksja. Destinations within 6,000 kilometres of Amsterdam are all Northern and Southern European destinations, Egypt, Morocco, Georgia, Jordan, Oman, Cape Verde and Eastern Canada (Montreal, Toronto, Quebec and Halifax). In the U.S., these are New York and Boston. Photo: Fenny Koppen.
