A Paris-Milan for 29 euros by train? On Instagram, the more than 2,000 members of the “Low-carbon travelers” discussion channel receive tips unearthed by Benjamin Martinie, alias Toll on social networks. The proposed route serves Chambéry, Modane and Turin, a city that the content creator with more than 75,000 subscribers “loves”. How to boost sales? Like him, many are now promoting soft modes of transport for going on vacation. Or how, while the reflex was previously to go to the airport, to manage differently to leave. Even far.
After having stopped flying, Benjamin Martinie launched a platform at the end of April that will make life easier for those who want to save their carbon footprint: Hurray. Because it must be recognized: between often higher prices, endless changes, avoiding the plane can quickly turn into a headache, especially when you go abroad. Once on Hourrail, you can choose between the sea, the mountains, heritage or cycling, among around thirty destinations, via recommended routes.
Any advice for this summer? “The trip to Sicily with the night train from Milan or Rome, then the ferry to reach the island, suggests the founder of Hourrail. It’s a super original experience, affordable, with magnificent landscapes! In addition, on site, it is quite possible to do without a car”.
With “more than 250,000 views and a thousand reservations” in less than two months, Benjamin Martinie does not intend to stop there. He wants to “develop his media, offer more cycling routes and accommodation offers, so that visitors can organize their entire trip on Hourrail. »
“Many people don’t know the train routes”
An ambition shared Mollow. Launched a month earlier, this other platform offers access to fifty cities depending on the length of one’s vacation: Paris-Mallorca is six and a half hours by train and a night ferry, i.e. a trip “doable on one or two weeks off ”… and “ten times less polluting than by plane”, we read on the platform. “We realized that beyond the price and the duration of the journeys, which can represent an obstacle, many people do not know the routes by train…”, explains Alisée Pierrot, co-founder of Mollow. As a bonus, on the platform, travelers can share their experience and share their recommendations.
Cyclists may prefer Hexplo – site that allows you to plan cycling routes and get ideas from among tested and approved routes, for all levels. And if you want to weigh the pros and cons, greengo just uploaded a new kind of comparator. Time, price, carbon footprint… The site allows you to put into perspective the same journey made by train, plane, car or bicycle, on a given date…
Towards a 3% increase in air traffic compared to 2019
We delight in the plane, again and again. Because while waiting for the so-called “green” aircraft (which is not about to arrive, which is why Ademe considers it necessary to reduce traffic to meet our climate objectives), avoiding the plane is one of the gestures the most effective ways to reduce its carbon footprint, i.e. the quantity of greenhouse gases induced by our activities and our consumption*. According to Ademe, tourism is responsible for 11% of French CO2 emissions, and the share of transport in this figure is 77%.
A ton of CO2 for a Paris-New York return flight, 100 kg for a Paris-London… Alexis Chailloux, low-carbon travel manager at Greenpeace, who last year published a eco holiday guide “.
However, leisure flights – doubled in France between 2008 and 2018 – do not seem to be about to decrease. According to the airlines, 2023 should be marked by a 3% increase in traffic compared to 2019, all types of flights combined. For Alexis Chailloux, the problem is both cultural and political: “On the one hand, the plane is everywhere, even in the emojis which symbolize our departures on vacation, whereas this mode of transport should be exceptional. On the other hand, as a last resort, when you are economically constrained, you opt for the cheapest solution. In this context, the tax advantages enjoyed by the airline sector are scandalous: no tax on kerosene, unlike cars, but also no VAT on international journeys…”
Content creators leading the way
“We inherit an imaginary where traveling means taking a plane and seeing turquoise blue beaches,” adds Amélie Deloffre. To change these representations, this specialist in communication on climate issues has founded Alternative routea group that brings together some forty journalists, communicators and a few committed content creators.**
Louannemanshow is one of the content creators leading the way. At not even 25 years old, she gives advice on booking train tickets, choosing the right berth to her almost 100,000 subscribers on Instagram. Mint teas and deckchairs by the sea: his latest adventure takes him to Morocco after a journey by train, the twists and turns of which we follow on his networks. Last summer, she embarked on a sailboat for Costa Rica, while her best friend, Swann Perisse (330,000 subscribers), offered its subscribers to follow her on a bike trip to Amsterdam with the videographer Mateo Bales (nearly 80,000).
“The journey begins the moment you leave the door”
But all of this takes time. This is precisely why a French company, Ubiq, has set up TTR or Responsible Travel Time. Understand: additional days off to allow time to travel responsibly. What can inspire other organizations?
We also need to “reconsider our relationship to time and distance…” says the founder of Hourrail. And don’t view transport as a waste of time: the journey begins the moment you leave the door. Watching the landscape scroll by through the train window, the waves from a boat, reading, daydreaming… All this is also part of the experience. Any regrets, then, about the plane? “For the moment, none, replies Benjamin Martinie without hesitation. On the contrary, I find it amusing to have to find solutions without. A year and a half ago, for example, I had a shoot in Corsica and I had to find a sailboat and a skipper to go there. It made the experience much tastier! »