While everyone is trying to come to grips with the expected downturn in this year's tourism season, tour operators in the Netherlands have introduced a possible key to a tourism revival.

Starting with this season, Dutch operators will implement a non-profit sustainable management system, called Travelife, which can also turn a key in their tourist destinations.

According to a spokesperson, Travelife is an easy to use system for all travel related businesses that recognize the challenge of innovation and with the global concern about the environment, as well as the growing demand for value-for-money.

Last year, the Boston Consulting Group found that more consumers systematically purchased "green" products in 2008 than in previous years, and that they were willing to give preference to "green" products deemed to be of higher quality.

All members of the Dutch Association of Tour Operators (ANVR) are now implementing the Travelife system, which has the backing of the Federation of Tour Operators (FTO) in the UK, ABTA (UK) and Forum Anders Reisen (FAR) in Germany.

According to Travelife, all participating tour operators have online access to information on their suppliers, and they will able to find all the suppliers’ sustainability performance and use it as a selection criterion in their product planning and contracting.

More information on the Travelife Sustainability System is available at www.travelife.eu or www.its4travel.com.