However, this week, popular sustainably-minded travel portal responsibletravel.com has taken a formal stand against carbon offsetting, calling the very idea of offsets “dangerously distracting.”

The website was one of the very first travel organizations to actually introduce carbon offsetting to the masses in early 2002. Now, it is one of the first to speak out against them – citing the travel industry’s need to reduce rather than offset carbon emissions.

“We have thought long and hard about how we can continue to offer our customers the leading advice they expect from a responsible tourism business when it comes to the fast growing impact of flying on the environment,” said Justin Francis, MD, responsibletravel.com. “We believe that the travel industry’s priority must be to reduce carbon emissions, rather than to offset.”

In a recent report by Friends of the Earth, carbon offsetting was deemed a “dangerous distraction” – a deterrent for tourists from the need to actually reduce their carbon footprint, creating a sort of guilt-free illusion of environmentally friendly travel.

Francis agrees with this report, and continues to say that “Too often offsets are being used by the tourism industry in developed countries to justify growth plans on the basis that money will be donated to projects in developing countries. Global reduction targets will not be met this way.”

In its place, responsibletravel.com is working with Friends of the Earth to put in place a clear, alternativeset of advice and guidelines to enable travelers to “carbon cautious.” for travellers offering

“Ultimately we need to reduce our carbon emissions,” continued Francis. “We can do this by flying less – travelling by train or taking holidays closer to home for example, and by making carbon reductions in other areas of our lifestyles too, alongside travel.

“There is no hiding the fact that tourists will continue to want to visit destinations requiring a flight, and that tourism contributes to livelihoods, local economic development and the conservation of the world’s cultural and natural heritage. We will continue to offer a more responsible choice of overseas holiday so that when tourists do fly they can ‘make their holiday count’ by choosing a more responsible holiday.”

Responsibletravel.com has also teamed up with leading responsible tourism academic Professor Harold Goodwin, Director International Center for Responsible Tourism on his FlySmart Campaign for Responsible Aviation: www.flysmart.org . The campaign supports a Carbon Friendly Flight Search functionality, enabling travelers to search and compare the cheapest and most environmentally friendly fares available around the world.

For more information visit www.flysmart.org and www.responsibletravel.com/carboncaution.

TRX, Inc., a leader in travel technology and data services, is delivering the new service to be used by a wide cross-section of companies ranging from carbon offsetters and other green start-ups to search engines, travel websites, GDSs, air carriers, and traditional travel agencies looking to provide users with insight into airline carbon emissions.

“Our proprietary carbon emissions calculator provides unmatched accuracy and completeness and is setting the industry standard for measuring airline carbon emissions,” said Shane Hammond, President and CEO, TRX. “It is our belief that with a trusted standard in place more individuals and companies will be in a position to reliably implement travel-related carbon emission reduction programs.”

TRX recently received the “Best Technology in 2008/2009″ ICARUS Award for Airline Carbon Emission measurement technology from the Institute of Travel and Meetings (ITM), a professional body for buyers, managers and suppliers of business travel in the UK and Ireland with over 1,000 members from large corporations, government departments and NGOs, SMEs and travel suppliers.

Several leading carbon offset firms currently access TRX’s calculations through the Carbon Emissions Developer Toolkit to power carbon offsetting programs and content websites.

“Travelingreen selected TRX’s airline CO2 calculator because of the depth, quality, relevancy and timeliness of the information available,” said Karen Morgan, Managing Director of Travelingreen. “No other calculation tool provides such rich data, as recognized by the Stockholm Institute and other independent authorities. Additionally, the quality and responsiveness of the TRX technical support is unsurpassed. For all these reasons, we selected TRX’s offering to be an integral component of our web site, www.travelingreen.net and our service-based CO2 measurement offerings to enterprise clients.”

“We chose to utilize the TRX Carbon Emissions calculations based on the level of depth and accuracy of the services,” said Terrapass CEO, Erik Blachford. “TRX calculation methodology uses more relevant variables than any other available carbon calculator, which is a perfect fit with the Terrapass model and philosophy of providing the most accurate information to our clients. In addition, the level of expertise and support provided by TRX has been outstanding.”

Toolkit users now have access to a free level of service providing the ability to track and evaluate a set number of travel transactions. Additional levels of service are available offering increased transactional usage and development support.

For more information, visit www.trx.com.