The golf industry is seeing a surge in demand during the pandemic, with PGA Tour Superstore reporting a 55% increase in overall year-to-date sales compared with 2019.

Demand is so high that suppliers are struggling to keep up, Dick Sullivan, CEO of PGA Tour Superstore, said on CNBC’s “The Exchange” on Friday.

“We are hearing that factories are purchasing additional factories overseas to keep up with this incredible demand,” Sullivan said.

“The demand has been unprecedented,” he said — and unexpected.

“There’s no factories anywhere around the world that predicted this kind of growth,” Sullivan said.

“In a lot of cases the assumptions were that once we were vaccinated, once people were able to go back inside, that less people would be outside, and we’re not seeing that,” he said. “We’re continuing to see people want to be outside.”

PGA Tour Superstore is also facing the same supply-chain challenges as others in the retail industry, with congested ports, container shortages and Covid-19 outbreaks slowing shipments.

“We’re not immune to what we are seeing everywhere across all industries, but we are working with all our suppliers, and, you know, what may have been just a few days of lead time unfortunately is turning into weeks,” Sullivan said. “But I was in California this week working with suppliers to see how we can accelerate the lead times to make sure we satisfy this demand.”

Check out the companies making headlines in midday trading.

Nvidia — Shares of Nvidia gained 2.3% after Bank of America raised its price target on the stock to $900 per share from $800 per share. The bank said “rising AI adoption, expanding use-cases across cloud, enterprise, edge, telco can help NVDA double its content and triple its data center sales over the next few years.”

Lennar — Lennar shares added 5.2% after JPMorgan upgraded the homebuilder to overweight from neutral. JPMorgan said Lennar’s stock as “attractive relative to its peers and effectively not reflecting the company’s significant and ongoing business transformation.”

Adobe — Shares of the digital cloud giant traded nearly 2% higher on the back of better-than-expected quarterly numbers. Adobe reported earnings per share of $3.03 on revenue of $3.84 billion. Analysts expected a profit of $2.81 per share on sales of $3.73 billion, according to Refinitiv.

Smith & Wesson Brands — The firearms manufacturer stock surged 15% after the company quarterly results that beat analyst expectations. Smith & Wesson’s earnings per share of $1.71 beat a Refinitiv forecast by 69 cents. The company’s revenue of $322.9 million also surpassed an estimate of $259.8 million. Smith & Wesson also raised its dividend by 60% and authorized a $50 million stock buyback.

Orphazyme — Shares of Orphazyme plunged 42% after U.S. regulators rejected its application for a drug intended to treat Niemann-Pick disease type C.

Fox Corporation — Fox shares gained 2% after the company upped its stock repurchase program by $2 billion to a total of $4 billion.

Citigroup — The bank stock fell 1.6% midday, putting it on pace for its 12th straight daily loss. Shares of Citigroup are down more than 11% this week.

— CNBC’s Tanaya Macheel contributed reporting

Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey has said that taking time off from Hollywood, in what he called an “unbranding phase,” actually helped revitalize his career. 

McConaughey was speaking on Tuesday at the 2021 CogX conference about life lessons, a major focus of his memoir “Greenlights,” which was published last year. 

In the 2000s, McConaughey had become known for starring in romantic comedies but after the birth of his child, the actor suggested his work was no longer challenging him enough. 

It was then that McConaughey decided to take a two-year break, which he called an “unbranding phase,” explaining that his absence in Hollywood actually attracted calls for alternative dramatic roles. McConaughey went on to win an Oscar for Best Actor in 2014 for his performance in “Dallas Buyers Club.” 

Taking that time out was a “big risk,” McConaughey said. 

“Trust me, I had the last six months before I got that phone call to come back to work in dramas — I did not know if I was ever going to work in Hollywood again,” he said. 

McConaughey also discussed how the death of his father, James Donald McConaughey, just days into working on his first acting job in the movie “Dazed and Confused” had shaped his approach to his work.

He said that dealing with the loss of his father at the same time his career took off “was challenging but it was so incredibly grounding and that’s what I mean when I say you sober up after you lose a loved one.”

“I think it helped me do a better job because I was more sober going about it,” he added. 

McConaughey used a traffic light analogy in his book to show what he had learned from these difficult periods — green light events were said to represent periods of success, while yellow and red light events reflected more challenging times. 

McConaughey said he noticed that “we love the green lights, they say ‘go proceed, more please, atta-boy, way to go’ — they’re approval, affirmation.”

Yellow and red lights, on the other hand, can be an ”interruption, they can be an intervention, they slow us down or stop our flow.”

McConaughey said he believed that those more challenging periods “have a lesson in them we’re supposed to learn and when we learn the lessons in them, that makes them green lights.”  

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Goldman Sachs‘s efforts to help hedge funds and other big institutional clients wager on bitcoin have taken a step forward.

The bank has begun trading bitcoin futures with Galaxy Digital, the crypto investment firm founded by Mike Novogratz, CNBC has exclusively learned.

The trades represent the first time that Goldman has used a digital assets firm as a counterparty since the investment bank set up its cryptocurrency desk last month, according to Damien Vanderwilt, co-president of Galaxy and head of its global markets division.

The moves by Goldman, the preeminent global investment bank, may reverberate on Wall Street and beyond as banks increasingly face pressure from clients who want exposure to bitcoin. By being the first major U.S. bank to begin trading cryptocurrency, Goldman is essentially giving other banks cover to begin doing so as well, said Vanderwilt, a former Goldman partner who joined Galaxy last year.

“There’s a whole dynamic with the major banks that I’ve seen time and time again: safety in numbers,” Vanderwilt said this week in an interview. “Once one bank is out there doing this, the other banks will have [fear of missing out] and they’ll get on-boarded because their clients have been asking for it.”

Galaxy was scheduled to announce Friday that it will serve as Goldman’s “liquidity provider” – Wall Street parlance for a company that provides quotes for buy and sell orders –  on CME Group bitcoin futures. Last month, in a memo first reported by CNBC, Goldman said it would sign on “new liquidity providers to help us in expanding our offering.”

“Our goal is to equip our clients with best-execution pricing and secure access to the assets they want to trade,” Max Minton, head of digital assets for Goldman’s Asia-Pacific region, said in a statement. “In 2021, this now includes crypto, and we are pleased to have found a partner with a broad range of liquidity venues and differentiated derivatives capabilities spanning the cryptocurrency ecosystem.”

Goldman is leaning on Galaxy for access to the crypto world because the highly regulated banking industry can’t handle bitcoin directly, according to Vanderwilt.

But nothing prevents banks from dealing in financial wagers tied to the price of the underlying coins, and so that is where Wall Street is starting its crypto journey. There are parallels in the commodities realm, in which banks trade exposure to hogs or corn without owning the physical asset, he said.

Galaxy, whose management ranks are stocked with ex-Goldman executives familiar with running regulated businesses, positions itself as a bridge for financial companies and crypto venues. The firm, whose shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, will likely offer shares in the U.S. this year.  

It’s a step toward the vision that Vanderwilt and the other former Goldman executives have for the development of bitcoin’s market infrastructure. As more banks allow clients including hedge funds, pensions, family offices and sovereign wealth funds to trade bitcoin, the depth and breadth of the markets improves, which ultimately should lower bitcoin’s famous volatility, he said.

“You’re moving the market participants from being north of 90% retail, a huge chunk of which have access to ridiculous amounts of leverage, into an institutional community, who have proper, tried-and-tested rules and regulations about leverage, asset-liability mismatch and risk,” Vanderwilt said. “The more activity that moves into the institutional community, the less volatility there will be.”

Banks will be able to offer clients ways to wager on bitcoin using derivatives, taking a page from the world of established finance, he said. That includes arbitrage bets related to the price gap between CME bitcoin futures and bitcoin itself, relative value trades between bitcoin and ethereum, and the creation of bitcoin structured notes.

Goldman’s steps in cryptocurrency trading are happening despite sustained skepticism toward bitcoin from other parts of the firm. Most notably, the bank’s chief investment officer for wealth management has called bitcoin a bubble that isn’t appropriate for investors.

But if enough trading clients ask for a product, investment banks are obliged to provide it, a dynamic that Vanderwilt has seen in other nascent markets around the world during his two decades at Goldman.

“If the phone rings enough times and clients are trying to get exposure, you eventually figure out how to do it for them safely, understanding that your role in the world is to intermediate exposure safely, not to act as a fiduciary,” he said.

The milestone brings Vanderwilt full circle with his former life. In 2017, as a senior Goldman trading executive, he was tasked with helping start the bank’s first effort to trade bitcoin futures, a plan that was later shelved. Now he’s helping make it happen from his position at Galaxy.

“There’s a lot of irony, I smile about it a lot,” Vanderwilt said. “But I’m really happy, it’s a happy full circle.”

It’s typically one of the biggest sales of the year. And in 2021, Amazon Prime Day could be even bigger.

The annual two-day shopping event is set to kick off at 3 a.m. ET on June 21 and will include discounts on more than 2 million items for Prime members — about twice as many as last year.

EMarketer is forecasting that total digital sales in the U.S. on Prime Day will jump 17.3% year over year to $12.18 billion. Sales made exclusively on Amazon on Prime Day will grow 18.3% from 2020 levels, to $7.31 billion, it said.

“That is an incredible number,” said Dave Kender, the editor in chief of Reviewed, but “most of the products are not that interesting.”

“There are diamonds in the rough,” he added. “You just have to work to find them.”

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Naturally, Amazon-branded products will be heavily discounted, including two-for-one sales on the Echo Dot and Fire TVs starting at $99.99.

Other stand out sales include Apple AirPods with a charging case marked down 25% to $119.99 and a Shark IQ Robot Vacuum for $319.99 — a savings of $280.

It’s a great time to start stocking up on summer travel supplies or back to school gear, especially from small businesses. Brooklyn-born bag company State will offer half off a kids backpack, which normally retails for$95 and Rockland has a rolling duffle bag for $50, about 55% less than retail.

This year some of the very best deals will be on small kitchen appliances like electric kettles and coffee makers, according to Nathan Burrow, the senior deals editor at Wirecutter.

Burrow predicted air fryers could be one of the most popular items overall, outshining even the Instant Pot, which has remained one of the hottest sellers for years.

Of course, you must be an Amazon Prime member to take advantage of Prime Day deals. 

If you haven’t already joined, it’s free for 30 days. After that, you can cancel or sign up for a month-to-month membership for about $13 or pay $119 for the year. For deal hunters, note that membership also includes free music, movies and e-books, as well as discounts on groceries at Whole Foods.

Then, download the Amazon app, scroll through upcoming deals and mark the items you are interested in as “watching,” Ramhold advised. You’ll receive a notification when the price drops.

When a deal is live, add the item to your cart immediately. Some offers sell out quickly, Ramhold said. Once it is in your cart, you’ll have 15 minutes to decide whether to complete the purchase.

If there is a specific product that you are set on and you don’t see it in upcoming sales, you can create a wish list and Amazon will alert you if it does become part of a Prime Day deal.

However, some of the best bargains are not exclusive to Amazon at all.

Walmart, Target and Best Buy are holding competing deals events — as they have in previous years — to coincide with Amazon Prime Day 2021.

Already, Best Buy is selling the Roku Express for just $29.99 and Jabra earbuds for $179.99, a $50 discount. During Office Depot’s discount days, which run from June 21 to June 23, an Acer Chromebook will be marked down 25% to $169.99.

But buyer beware. As vaccination rates increase and the economy bounces back from Covid, post-pandemic sprees — or so-called revenge shopping — can quickly lead to overspending, according to a recent report by the American Institute of CPAs.

Already, 2 in 5 Americans said shopping online more has made it harder to stick to a monthly budget.

About 39% of those polled said they often don’t know how much they’ve spent on their credit or debit card until they see their monthly statement.

“Merchants have powerful strategies to encourage you to spend,” said Neal Stern, a member of the association’s financial literacy commission.

“Determine what you plan to purchase and how much you’ll spend before you start shopping,” he said. “If you have a plan, you’ll be less likely to give into overspending.”

Also, before checking out, always look to see if there are better deals elsewhere, Kender advised. Open a new tab and search the product’s model number to see prices from other websites.

And finally, read user reviews and research price histories so you can determine how good the product — and discount — really is.

“There is no such thing as a good deal on a bad product,” Kender said.

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As small business owners recover from the pandemic, it’s important to make sure they get their personal and business finances back on track, said personal finance expert and best-selling author Suze Orman.

That includes saving, investing and managing credit card debt.

“You have got to put yourself in a situation that no matter what happens, you can pay your bills,” said Orman, host of the podcast, “Women & Money (And Everyone Smart Enough To Listen).”

Orman shared her advice and much more to LGBTQ+ small business owners and allies during CNBC + Acorns Invest in Pride: Ready. Set. Grow. on LinkedIn Thursday.

Here’s how Orman suggests small business owners tackle their money as they move forward post-pandemic.

There are several options for small business owners to save for retirement.

They can open a SIMPLE IRA, which allows employees to contribute money to the plan, or a SEP IRA, in which only the owners can make contributions. They can also fund a solo 401(k), which covers a business owner with no employees.

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Sole proprietor James Kingman, psychotherapist and owner of Atlanta-based Unlimited Spectrum Counseling, wanted to know how to get started.

Orman’s advice: Since he doesn’t have employees, he should contribute to a Roth IRA until it is maxed out (which is $6,000, or $7,000 if you are over 50 in 2021). Then, open a solo Roth 401(k).

Once Kingman has employees, look into other alternatives, Orman said.

The earlier you start saving for retirement the better because of compound interest, which is interest earned on interest.

“It is like a little snowball rolling down a mountain in beautiful snow and it gets bigger and bigger and the longer it rolls, the bigger it gets,” explained Orman, who recently co-founded Secure, an employer-matched emergency fund for employees.

For instance, if an 18 year-old opens a Roth IRA and contributes $100 a month for the next 40 years, assuming a 12% annual average rate of return, he or she would end up with $1 million. If he or she waited 10 years to start, the end result would be only $300,000 by age 58, she said.

An emergency savings of 12 months’ worth of expenses is a must these days, Orman said.

If you want to save more after that, outside of a retirement plan, a series I savings bond is a fabulous investment if you have at least up to $10,000, she said. It’s tied to inflation, which has been rising.

The interest rate is a combination of a fixed rate, currently 0%, and a semiannual inflation rate, currently 3.54%.

It has a minimum term of ownership of a year, and if you redeem it before five years, you’ll forfeit interest from the previous three months. After five years, there is no penalty.

Kristy Ramsey, owner of Content Maven Media based in Woodlawn, Chicago, wanted to know if she should use her savings to pay down credit card debt.

The answer depends on how much savings would be left over after that debt was paid. Orman recommends having a year’s worth of working capital saved for your business, as well as a 12-month emergency fund.

After that, if you have the extra cash, pay off your credit cards, she said.

“When you pay it off, your debt to credit limit ratio goes down and your FICO [credit] score goes up, so when you need a loan you’ll get it at better rates,” Orman explained.

Investing should come after you have your emergency fund in place and it should be for the long-term — at least five years and preferably 10 years to 20 years, Orman said.

Protecting those investments from an economic collapse is what worries Denise Merritt, founder and CEO of Apopka, Florida-based Merritt Business Solutions.

Orman’s advice: When you have investments, don’t freak out when the markets start to go down.

“I don’t know one market in all the years I’ve been doing this that hasn’t returned to its peak again,” she said.

Therapist Catherine Swanson is currently working a 9-to-5 job to pay the bills. However, she really wants to make her part-time business, Alternatives: Music Therapy and Counseling, her full-time job. Her concern is figuring out the best time to do it.

The Ankeny, Iowa-based business currently doesn’t make enough money to support Swanson, falling short about $2,000 to $3,000 a month. However, Swanson believes if she goes full-time, she’ll make enough.

Before taking the jump, she needs to have a one-year emergency fund in place and about three to four months of working capital set aside for the business, Orman said.

She also suggests getting business credit cards in case Swanson needs a little help — those that don’t report to the credit scoring companies. There are some that don’t, unless you are delinquent.

“Then, go have a good time and kiss that job goodbye,” Orman said.

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Invitation Homes CEO Dallas Tanner told CNBC on Friday the U.S. housing market remains “healthy,” downplaying concerns that the sharp rise in prices during the Covid pandemic is creating bubble-like conditions. 

In an interview on “Squawk on the Street,” Tanner said the supply-and-demand dynamics that have contributed to the feverish market conditions are unlikely to “change dramatically overnight.”

That fact, combined with tighter mortgage lending standards instituted after the 2008 crash, lead Tanner to believe the housing market is in solid shape. As a result, he said, he’s not concerned about acquiring new properties for his Texas-based company, which rents single-family homes,

“I would expect that home prices stay relatively stable, if not continue to grow in value for the homeowners in the country, but we’ll find our ways to pick our spots whether through our partnerships with builders or our ability to buy one-off,” Tanner said. “We view the housing environment overall as extremely healthy.”

The housing market has been one of the strongest parts of the U.S. economy during the coronavirus pandemic, although there are some indications it has recently been cooling somewhat. 

“For the past couple of weeks, housing has been hot instead of blazing hot, and it’s actually probably good for the market,” Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman told CNBC last week. 

But looking further out, Tanner said the fundamental conditions are supportive. Demographic trends, in particular, are powerful right now, he said.

“You have this wave of millennials coming our way,” with tens of millions of people looking for housing, Tanner said. “So, as you start to think about, would we see a decrease in either home purchasing or home leasing? We just don’t see it.” 

In fact, Tanner said sees the need for more “quality, affordable housing” across all categories to be available in the U.S. He noted that the number of single-family homes being built each year — roughly 1.5 million units — is similar to levels from the late 1990s. 

“Whether it’s fee simple and somebody wanting to purchase, a for-lease product like we provide or even some of these ancillary programs that are meant to benefit the consumer and give them quality choice along their journey, I think there’s actually an appetite for all of that product today in the U.S.,” he said.

LONDON — England’s top medical officer has warned that the coming winter will continue to be difficult for the country’s health system despite the country’s successful coronavirus vaccination program.

A further easing of lockdown restrictions in England was delayed this week due to a surge in cases of the delta variant first discovered in India. 

In a speech to the NHS Confederation Thursday, Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty said the current wave of Covid infections due to the delta variant would likely be followed by another surge in the winter.

He said that Covid-19 “has not thrown its last surprise at us and there will be several more [variants] over the next period,” according to Sky News. He added that it would likely take five years before there are vaccines that could “hold the line” to a very large degree against a range of coronavirus variants.

And until then, he said that new vaccination programs and booster shots would be needed.

In the U.K., where the delta variant is now responsible for the bulk of new infections, cases have spiked among young people and the unvaccinated, leading to a rise in hospitalizations in those cohorts.

It’s hoped that Covid-19 vaccination programs can stop the spread of the delta variant and so the race is on to protect younger people who might not be fully vaccinated. 

Analysis from Public Health England released on Monday showed that two doses of the Pfizer–BioNTech or Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines are highly effective against hospitalization from the delta variant.

But some vaccines are reported to be less effective against other strains. For example, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said earlier this month that it has started commercial negotiations with AstraZeneca to secure a variant vaccine — which has been adapted to tackle the variant first discovered in South Africa.

Meanwhile, trials of booster shots are already underway in Britain and there are reports that the population will receive a third shot before winter this year. 

Over 42 million people have had a first dose of a vaccine in Britain — that’s about 80% of the adult population — and over 30 million people have had their second dose.

—CNBC’s Holly Ellyatt contributed to this article.

Take a look at some of the biggest movers in the premarket:

Adobe (ADBE) – Adobe reported quarterly profit of $3.03 per share, 21 cents a share above estimates. The software company’s revenue also topped Wall Street forecasts and Adobe gave stronger-than-expected current-quarter guidance. Its shares rose 3.1% in premarket trading.

Smith & Wesson (SWBI) – Smith & Wesson reported better-than-expected profit and sales for its latest quarter, as the gun maker’s sales surged 67% compared to the same quarter a year earlier. The company notes that its shipments jumped 70% compared to overall industry growth of 42%. Shares rallied 4.7% in premarket trading.

Orphazyme (ORPH) – Orphazyme plunged 52.6% in the premarket after the Food and Drug Administration rejected its experimental treatment for a genetic disorder known as Niemann-Pick disease type C. The Denmark-based biotech company had seen volatile trading in its shares in recent days after it picked up social media attention, falling 10.2% Thursday after a more than 61% surge Wednesday.

Delta Air Lines (DAL) – The stock added 1.1% in the premarket following a double upgrade at Wolfe Research to “outperform” from “underperform.” Wolfe said it sees business travel benefiting from pent-up demand later this summer, although it doesn’t think it will return to pre-Covid levels.

Manchester United (MANU) – Manchester United lost $30.2 million for the first three months of this year, due largely to the absence of fans at its games because of the coronavirus pandemic. All of the team’s 2020-21 season games were played without spectators.

ArcelorMittal (MT) – ArcelorMittal sold its remaining 38.2 million shares of steel producer Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF). The mining company will use the proceeds to fund a $750 million share buyback. Arcelor-Mittal rose 1% in premarket action, while Cleveland-Cliffs added 0.3%.

Carnival (CCL) – The cruise line operator disclosed a March data breach that may have exposed personal information of customers of its Carnival, Holland America and Princess brands. It did not disclose how many may have been affected.

Fox Corp. (FOXA) – Fox increased its stock repurchase program by $2 billion to a total of $4 billion, helping to send its shares higher by 2.8% in the premarket.

Pilgrim’s Pride (PPC) – Pilgrim’s Pride expanded its prepared foods and branded products business by purchasing Kerry Group’s Meats and Meals business. The poultry producer will pay the Ireland-based company about $947 million for that unit.

Hasbro (HAS), Mattel (MAT) – The toymakers are on watch following a New York Post report warning of a potential toy shortage this coming holiday season. The paper said thousands of toys ready for shipment remain stockpiled in China due to the lack of shipping containers available for export.

Biogen (BIIB) – The drugmaker’s stock was upgraded to “overweight” from “neutral” at Piper Sandler, which cites a number of factors including the likelihood that doctors will prescribe Biogen’s newly approved Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm. Biogen shares rose 1.7% in the premarket.

Citigroup (C) – The bank’s stock remains on watch after declining for the past 11 consecutive trading days, losing 14% over that time.

Surveys indicate a silver lining to the pandemic is a heightened commitment to “sustainable” travel by consumers. But as vaccinations lift travel prospects, hopes for a “green” recovery may have been overblown.

Sustainable travel has grown in popularity in recent years as people have tried to mitigate the negative effects of tourism, either by avoiding damaging practices or offsetting them.

The pandemic appeared to accelerate that trend.

According to a recent study by travel company Virtuoso, four in five people (82%) said the pandemic has made them want to travel more responsibly in the future. Almost three-quarters (72%) said travel should support local communities and economies, preserve destinations’ cultural heritage and protect the planet.

But a further probe tells a different story.

In a separate study by travel site The Vacationer, a similar majority (83%) said sustainable travel was somewhat or very important to them. Yet, almost half (48%) of respondents said they would opt for such trips only if it did not inconvenience them.

And convenience isn’t the only limitation.

Good intentions aside, cost remains the primary consideration for most travelers (62%) when planning a holiday, the study from The Vacationer found. Sustainability and carbon footprint, on the other hand, pales at 4%.

Seven in 10 (71%) said they would pay more to lower their carbon footprint, but the extent to which they’re willing — or able — to do so varies greatly.

Just over a quarter (27%) of respondents said they would pay less than $50 to counter their emissions, while one-third (33%) said they would contribute $50 to $250. Only 3% said they would be willing to pay over $500, and 29% would pay nothing.

Therein lies the problem for the travel industry. It would cost $69 for an individual traveling from New York to Rome to offset the carbon emissions for the flight alone.

Such costs make mass adoption on the consumer side unlikely, said Dr. Srikanth Beldona, a professor at the University of Delaware.

“Sustainable travel will have to cost more if it must reduce its carbon footprint, and there are signs that a niche market for this can emerge,” he said, calling instead for a “universal solution” that combines the efforts of businesses and regulators.

Already, the pandemic has spurred some governments and companies to tout sustainability as part of their modus operandi — or at least their future modus operandi.

American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, for instance, are among the major travel companies to have committed to carbon neutrality targets. Meanwhile, new businesses are emerging to meet consumer appetite for environmentally friendly vacations.

“Rather than overshadow the issue, the Covid-19 pandemic has roughly doubled the rate at which businesses and local governments commit to reach net-zero,” said Nora Lovell-Marchant, vice president of global sustainability at American Express global business travel.

But with sustainability metrics and accountability still in their infancy, greater collaboration is needed to ensure targets are met.

In the airline industry, for instance, offsetting carbon is just the first step. Developments in sustainable aviation fuel and aircraft are necessary in order to create long-term change, said Emily Weiss, global travel industry lead at Accenture, who has been advising airlines on getting back to normalcy.

“The pandemic’s carbon emissions data has highlighted that even severely reducing air travel is not the single answer to neutralizing the climate threat,” she said. “It will take cross-industry collaboration coupled with a more environmentally conscious consumer mindset to achieve a more sustainable future.”

Still, with international travel showing signs of reopening, waiting for a wave of sustainable tourism is not an option — especially for the hundreds of millions of people whose livelihoods depend on the industry.

“Ceasing travel altogether isn’t feasible,” said James Thornton, CEO of Intrepid Group, a travel company specializing in sustainable tourism. “In fact, tourism provides countless benefits to communities around the world and the traveler themselves.”

Instead, travelers can opt for more environmentally friendly travel options that suit their price range and schedule, said Thornton, whose company employs 21 forms of public transport. Train travel, for instance, can be a novel way to experience a new place with far lower emissions than air travel.

“Traveling responsibly is not about making sacrifices or staying home,” he said. “It’s about planning trips carefully so that you’re able to enjoy the experience you seek, while leaving a positive footprint in the destination you’re visiting.”