, “Tour operator climate action: Can Epique’s European
portfolio CO2 reduction and compensation options be allied
with customer needs?”
Bachelor graduation report written by:
Noé van Dongen
Bachelor graduation research submitted for the study International Tourism Management on
behalf of Epique Mountain Adventures BV and supervised by Eke Eijgelaar.
May 2023
Study program: International tourism management
Academic year: 2022-2023
Student number: 191614
Student email: 191614@buas.nl
Commissioner: Epique Mountain Adventures BV – Michiel de Ruijter
Hand-in date: 28-05-2023
,Preface
The reason the subject: “CO₂ reduction and/or compensate allied with the needs and wishes of the
clients.” was chosen, is because I aimed to orientate myself within the topic sustainability. And at the
same time, I wanted to listen to the wishes of the client and Epique, to make it possible for Epique to
implement the advice.
Sustainability never caught my attention because, as many others, I always thought it was only about
waste management and solar panels. However, during my years at BUas I found out that sustainability
is way more than that. This was for me the perfect example, that many do not know that sustainability
is broad and complex. Besides, tourism is a major polluter and if we do not undertake action there
might be a dark future ahead of us for the tourism industry. But there is also an intrinsic motivation to
write my thesis about sustainability and CO₂ emissions. Personally, I love to travel, but I do know the
consequences for nature. There must be ways to make travelling more sustainable without affecting
the trip too much. I do know that travelling will never become sustainable, but like many others I do
not want to stop. What I do want is to make changes in my travel behavior, to reduce my CO₂ emissions
and I do want to inspire others to do so as well. While writing this thesis, I do want to learn more about
sustainable options to travel and make others aware of these options as well.
And finally, I want to broaden my knowledge about sustainability in the tourism industry not only for
personal purposes but also to use this in my professional career.
This study would not have been possible without some people whom I would like to express my
gratitude to. Thank you to: Michiel de Ruijter, Rik Deekens, Paul de Groot, Nico Piek, Gijs-jan Lavèn,
Fabian Hagen and Jonne van Leeuwen for making me feel welcome within Epique Mountain
Adventures and for helping me to gain a deeper insight of the product portfolio and the current action
concerning sustainability.
Furthermore, I would like to thank Eke Eijgelaar for his excellence guidance, helpful feedback, and
motivating words. The useful feedback and tips have helped me tremendously while writing my thesis.
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, Abstract
Nowadays tourists still decide to go on winter sports even though they know that travelling is damaging
for the environment. This is also the case for tour operators who keep offering adventurous trips to
unknown places. These trips are damaging for the environment while at the same time it is also a good
revenue model. In this research an advice will be given on how a tour operator can make their
European winter sport product portfolio more sustainable with less CO 2 emissions. In this case the
focus will be on a company called Epique mountain adventures. This is a small tour operator located
in Utrecht, which is selling extreme winter sport trips. These trips include tour skiing, free riding, heli-
skiing, ski and sail and other adventurous ways of discovering the unknown places in winter sport
areas. In this research the focus will be on their European winter sport product portfolio, however this
research can partly be used for other tour operators as well. To give Epique an advice on how to adapt
their product portfolio to limit the CO2 emissions an answer will be given to the main question: “What
is the climate impact of Epique’s European portfolio, and how can this be mitigated in a way that is
acceptable to customers?”
To answer this main question, 4 sub questions were formed which must be answered and together
answer the main question. The questions are related to the current emissions of Epique, opportunities
to mitigate, and the attitude of the client towards product adaptations and CO2 compensation. These
questions are answered by desk research and by conducting client interviews. For desk research
different academic sources were used but also websites and other reports were used. The field
research was done by conducting structured interviews with current clients of Epique and potential
clients for Epique. This is done because Epique wants to keep on growing so it is also importance to
find out what potential clients think about the different mitigation opportunities.
The desk research found out that tour operators and traveler do know that something should change
if we want to keep exploring such unique places. However, if an action is influencing the personal
benefits of a traveler, then they are not likely to change their behaviour. If travelers are on holiday
they want to relax and enjoy the trip and they do not want to think about sustainable actions. There is
also a constant attitude-behavior gap in which the traveler is saying and realizing they need to change
their behaviour; however, their actual behavior does not show this. Furthermore, a clear image in
shown on what the CO2 emissions of each aspect of a trip are from which later calculation were made
to find out the current emissions of Epique. The emissions not reduced will be compensated by Epique
and the desk research found out that donation projects are the best project to use. The best donation
project for Epique would be planting tress because this is closely related to CO 2 emission and this can
be done at the destination or in the Netherlands, however, also some criticism was given to these
projects. Lastly, opportunities for tour operators to help the traveler make sustainable choices were
researched which are train travel, eco accommodation, more information sources, longer trips, short-
haul trips, and less damaging activities. These mitigation opportunities can be considered by tour
operators to decrease the damaging effect of their trips. The field research found out that the traveler
indeed does know that something should change, however they unanimously agree that it should not
affect their holiday too much. Product adaptations they are open to are train travel, eco
accommodation and more information sources. Furthermore, the client wants Epique to be more
transparent in their statement and information related to CO2 compensation. The (potential) client of
Epique believes that a free choice of compensation project would be best because this will make them
feel more connected to the project.
It can be concluded that Epique should make changes in their product portfolio. However, the changes
should not affect the holiday of the client too much. Accepted changes are, the possibility to travel by
train, eco accommodations and more transparent information in the booking information and during
the trip. The emissions that are nor reduced by these adaptations should be compensated using
donation projects in which Epique should give their client the possibility to choose which project they
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