CEO Daily: Building a Standard for Sustainable Tourism

Our daily brief on must-read business news…and more. Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. follow Subscribe Send Tip November 8, 2019 Good morning, Eamon Barrett here, filling in for Alan. Today's CEO Daily is a crossover episode. On Tuesdays I write a Fortune newsletter on sustainability in business called The Loop where, this week, I focused on revolutions in air travel. Today, here at the Fortune Global Tech Forum in Guangzhou, Alan interviewed Booking.com chairwoman Gillian Tans on stage, and discussed, among other things, the future of sustainable tourism. So the theme continues. "Let's go back to the mission of Booking.com," Tans said during the forum's opening session today. "The mission is really to help people experience the world. Very early on, when we defined this mission, we said we also need to make sure we make the world a place where generations to come can keep exploring the world." Tans says the demand for sustainable tourism is there—71% of consumers surveyed by the travel company said they want eco-friendly options—but, as is often the problem with promoting "sustainable" products, there's no real standard on what that means. Here, Booking.com is leading the charge. In September the travel site teamed up with the charity organization run by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex—better known as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle—to launch Travalyst. Travalyst—a portmanteau of travel and catalyst—is a platform dedicated to promoting eco-tourism, that brings together the world's leading online travel agents (OTAs) including Ctrip, Tripadvisor and Booking.com. Together, the group should be able to forge some consensus on sustainable travel. However, Travalyst has been criticized for offering few details on how the group will actually promote sustainability. Alan pointed out on stage that air travel is responsible for the majority of tourism-related carbon emissions and Booking.com can't do much to stop that. "There's a lot happening in air travel," Tans said. "But for Booking that would be more complicated [to manage] because we don't operate airplanes." For now, Tans is more focused on developing Booking.com's A.I. capabilities, which will help streamline customer service and take the hassle out of travel. You can catch up on all of the Global Tech Forum through Fortune's online coverage of the event here. Alan returns Monday. More below. Eamon Barrett @EamonBarrett49 eamon.barrett@fortune.com . . TOP NEWS Peck Out Gap CEO Art Peck has quit after four years in the role. The reason has not been made clear, but his interim successor is board member Robert Fisher, who praised Peck-led advances in the company such as "expanding the omnichannel customer experience and building our digital capabilities." Business Insider Bloomberg In? 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However, the head of Japan's largest refiner says Japanese companies will likely shun the IPO because of Aramco's lack of transparency. Financial Times . Content From Deloitte Consumer Privacy in Retail Consumers are becoming more privacy aware and it's time to define a new set of standards.  Findings from Deloitte's Privacy Survey show that retailers who focus on consumer privacy are poised to create more meaningful data, enhance consumer engagement, and reduce risk exposure. Read more . AROUND THE WATER COOLER Recession Watch The likelihood of a U.S. recession has decreased in recent months, according to Deutsche Bank Securities chief economist Torsten Slok, who pointed to a steepening of the yield curve. The New York Fed yesterday put the probability of a recession at 29%, down from 40% in the weeks following the curve's inversion in August. Fox Business Trump Settlement President Trump has been ordered to pay $2 million over unlawful coordination between his foundation and 2016 presidential campaign. The cash will go to a collection of nonprofits as part of a settlement with the New York state attorney general's office, over Trump's breaching of his fiduciary duty to the foundation—he apparently allowed his campaign to use money from a foundation fundraiser. However, the New York state judge that ordered the payment did not ban Trump nor his kids from serving on the boards of other New York nonprofits. CNN Billionaires' Wealth Geopolitical turmoil and volatile equity markets led the world's richest people to become a little less rich last year, for the first time in a decade. A UBS/PwC report found that the world's 2,150-ish billionaires' wealth fell by $388 billion, leaving them with $8.539 trillion (or roughly 2.37% of the world's total wealth.) Reuters Google Contractors More than half of Google's workers are temps, vendor or contract staff (known as TVCs) who are expected to act as representatives for Google but don't actually work for the firm. What's that like? As their calls for greater benefits or unionization show, additional responsibilities often don't translate to additional pay—and being a TVC is no longer the path to employment at Google that some hoped it was. Fortune This edition of CEO Daily was edited by David Meyer.  WE NEED YOUR HELP Know a standout female leader at your company or another? Tell us about her! We're taking nominations for Fortune's upcoming Most Powerful Women Next Gen Summit, where we convene ascending leaders to converse about business, share advice, and connect with one another. It's Dec. 10-11 in Laguna Niguel, Calif. Submit your nominations. . IF YOU LIKE THIS EMAIL... Share today's CEO Daily with a friend. Did someone share this with you? Sign up here. For previous editions, click here. 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