Webjet OTA has been recognized as a WBA Winner for Business Sustainability in the World Business Awards 2022. The World Business Award for Business Sustainability [BSA] recognizes organizations that have successfully implemented initiatives that demonstrate leadership and commitment to sustainable business practices.

Webjet is one of the first Online Travel Agents (OTA) in the Australian market and is proud of its position as the number one OTA in Australia and New Zealand. Webjet currently takes more than 50% share of the OTA flights market, as well as more than 5% of the domestic flights market and about 4% of the international flights market. Webjet is driven to deliver the best travel products, value, and services to its customers, and has set a precedent for developing industry leading technology and tools that provide travellers the greatest convenience and choice. These achievements include the world’s first Travel Services Aggregation technology and an industry first domestic matrix presentation.

Amidst a growing consumer sentiment for sustainable travel practices and increased awareness about the impacts of climate change, Webjet became the first Australian OTA to introduce its own carbon offset program. The program, Sustainable Traveller, launched in September 2020 and was delivered in collaboration with Tasman Environmental Markets (TEM), a world-leading partner in carbon offset projects. Sustainable Traveller is entirely for the Webjet consumer and 100% of contributions paid by customer go to directly support verified carbon offset projects around the world. Sustainable Traveller is powered by TEM’s BlueHalo™ technology and allows Webjet customers to simply tick a box in their booking journey and automatically be delivered a calculated offset for their flight/s. The API-driven software is integrated into the Webjet booking path and was the first time Webjet developers introduced a new product to the site Payment page. Carbon offset contribution calculations are determined using international standards to convert greenhouse gas emissions from the customer input, and calculation requests are broken into flight legs rather than point-to-point.

Sustainable Traveller supports a portfolio of four verified projects: one in Australia and three overseas. The projects include Indigenous fire abatement in Arnhem Land in Northern Territory; the introduction of clean energy and wind farms in rural communities around India; the protection and conservation of threatened rainforest in the Peruvian Amazon; building efficient and clean cookstoves throughout Malawi.

A launch marketing strategy included educational messaging, proactive communications and even an internal activation for Webjet staff. Attachment rates as a success metric were used to test where the program sat within the wider Webjet offering. The initial attachment rate target was revised upon consideration that Sustainable Traveller would be launching within a market still heavily impacted by border closures, reduced airline capacities and customer anxiety around air travel. However, Sustainable Traveller immediately outperformed goals even before direct B2C marketing commenced, and it continues to exceed expectations.