Additional information

How we achieve our aim 

At the centre of our work as a small charity is a strong evidence base. We have built productive and trusting relationships with many household names within the travel industry, formalised as Safer Tourism Pledge partners, and each year they provide us with anonymised safety incident data for their customer base.  

We aggregate this dataset and develop industry wide insights which shape our work both with travel companies, and with consumers. We share our insights as widely as possible so that every part of the travel ecosystem can use them to help improve the safety of travel. 

We also use these insights to challenge the travel industry in specific areas, and to facilitate better risk management practices.  

For example, in 2024 our data showed a worrying trend in incidents related to life-threatening food allergies, and we provided expert advice and new thinking to encourage tour operators and travel agents to look at where they could improve the controls for customers travelling with a severe food allergy.  

As a result, several operators made changes to their systems overseas in holiday destinations, and in their customer communications processes. We continue to work on this issue with a clinical allergy specialist at Imperial College and with our brand ambassador, whose daughter lives with a severe nut allergy. 

In addition to using our own dataset, our campaigning work is responsive too. For the last year we have been working with Cathy Foley, whose son Hudson died aged 24 from carbon monoxide poisoning in a homestay in Ecuador. Working with Cathy and UK parliamentarians we have persuaded the UK government, through the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, to add advice about the risks of carbon monoxide poisoning to the travel advice pages on the .gov website. This site acts as the foundation for all the safety advice travel companies provide to UK customers, as well as being widely used by independent travellers preparing for their own trips. 

We have also been able to feature the Pack Safe campaign, in memory of Hudson Foley, on BBC Breakfast, ITV News and local radio, directly resulting in several thousand additional travel-friendly carbon monoxide alarms being purchased by the British public. 

The Board has decided to invest some of its reserves in boosting the charity’s capacity to speak to the travelling public through enhancing our work on digital channels (content development and dissemination); we plan to increase our staff capacity to achieve this aim during 2025. 

What difference does Safer Tourism make? 

Because we are a small, independent charity we can be nimble, responding to situations as they arise as well as delivering on our planned work. In November 2024 following the tragic news that 6 travellers had died of methanol poisoning in Laos, we provided commentary to the media in the UK and Europe, raising awareness of this risk across the world and giving advice on how to avoid inadvertently consuming methanol. 

In 2019 we worked in collaboration with the British Consulate in Barcelona to deliver a video-based campaign encouraging young adults travelling to the Balearics to “Stick Together”, to reduce the number of fatal falls from buildings. We also called for one apartment block (where three young people had died) to be taken off sale by two well-known short term rental platforms, publicising this preventative action in UK media. Our campaign featured on ITV News and we saw a 50% reduction in the number of fatal falls in one year. 

Behind the scenes we are influencing change within the travel industry through evidence-based and constructive challenge. For example, we are currently leading a project to improve the way incident data is logged and tracked, so that we can all make better use of it; we have introduced concepts from behavioural science to tour operators, explaining a phenomenon we call the “holiday head”; and we are in the process of designing and delivering a specialist workshop  challenging the travel industry to think differently about how to manage the safety impacts of climate change, particularly increased heat, on travellers, and on travel itself. 

For more information about what we have achieved, please see our latest Impact Report. 

The Board of the Safer Tourism Foundation 

The Board of Trustees is the independent body with legal responsibility for the charity. The Board appoints the Chief Executive and delegates day to day responsibility for delivering the aims of the charity.  

The Board meets four times a year, usually in London but occasionally online. Our Board currently comprises seven people, some with a deep understanding of the travel industry and others with extensive experience in risk, health and/or safety. 

Safer Tourism is in a transition phase, from newbie startup to becoming a more established, credible charity with a track record of delivering change for public benefit.  

Key to this successful transition will be Trustees who can support our small staff (of two) to build productive networks in new parts of the travel ecosystem, including insurers, underwriters, ancillary providers, associations and potentially media. We want to make a step change in our reach, and we want to use this to secure a broader range of income sources to help the charity become financially sustainable in the longer term. The next two years will be critical in determining the future of Safer Tourism and our Trustees will play a vital role. 

General duties of a Board of Trustees 

There is a lot of useful guidance published by the government, and the charity regulator, the Charity Commission, which explains the role. A good place to start is https://www.gov.uk/guidance/charity-trustee-whats-involved 

In summary, as a collective body the Board of Trustees has a number of duties it must fulfil: 

• Ensure that the organisation complies with its Articles of Association, with charity law, and any other relevant legislation or regulations  

• Further the charitable objects of the organisation in the pursuit of public benefit  

• Ensure that the policy and practices of the organisation are in keeping with its charitable objects  

• Formulate and regularly review the strategic objectives of the organisation, in collaboration with the CEO  

• Take legal and financial responsibility to safeguard the assets and the continuity of the organisation  

• Be satisfied that financial information is accurate and that controls and systems of risk management are robust and defensible  

• Act always in the interests of the organisation and its beneficiaries  

• Safeguard the wellbeing of the employees  

• Take appropriate professional advice in matters where there may be a significant risk to the organisation or where the trustee could be in breach of their duties  

• Ensure proper procedures are undertaken in the appointment and performance monitoring of the CEO (and possibly other members of the senior management team)  

Duties of an individual trustee

Every trustee has a responsibility to act as a member of the Board in fulfilling its statutory and legal duties, setting the direction for the charity so it operates within its objects and ensuring that it delivers public benefit. Trustees are expected to act in an independent capacity, using their expertise and life experience to inform their decision making but not acting as a “representative” of any group.  Once a decision is taken by the Board all trustees are expected to take collective responsibility for that decision in public fora. 

The tasks of a Trustee

The minimum amount of time a Trustee needs to be able to give to the role is for the four Board meetings a year, which would amount to approximately 4 days per year including preparation. 

In addition we would welcome further support in areas to suit Trustee skills, interests and availability, and this might typically add an additional 2 days on to the annual commitment. This additional contribution would be at the discretion of each Trustee and agreed in discussion with the Chief Executive and/or Chair.  

The core tasks of a Trustee are: 

• To participate in strategy development and review and in annual planning and evaluation activity.  

• To attend Board meetings, read relevant papers and otherwise prepare in order to make an informed and constructive contribution to effective decision making. 

• To maintain up-to-date knowledge of the charity’s activities.  

• To hold fellow trustees, Board members and the Chief Executive accountable for fulfilling their role. 

• To support the staff when requested, sharing expertise, as members of a working group, committee or in other appropriate ways.  

• To build and maintain relationships with Board members, existing and potential partner organisations and attend events as an ambassador for the Safer Tourism Foundation to network and promote its work.  

• To champion the charity, including assisting with income generation, speaking, networking, and sharing professional connections in conjunction with staff as appropriate. 

• To be prepared to act as a spokesperson for the Safer Tourism Foundation when asked by the Chief Executive or Chair, working within an agreed brief.