Sustainable tourism: a publication for hoteliers
Greetings CEPA people:
Here’s a new publication about sustainable tourism that might be of interest. This one is written specifically for the hotel industry. It has been produced through a partnership between Accor, a major hotel group operating in almost 100 countries, IH&RA, a business organization representing 200,000 hotels and 8 million restaurants, and IUCN’s Business and Biodiversity Programme. Drafted by a team of experts and an impressive review panel,Biodiversity: My hotel in action. A guide to sustainable use of biological resources, sets out to help managers of hotels and their restaurants rise to the challenge of sustainable hotel practice.
In this 127-page publication, Part I gives a useful outline of biodiversity, what it is, the ecosystem services delivered by biodiversity, how human populations are currently harming biodiversity, and specifically looks at the impact of hotels on biodiversity. Part II provides hotels with practical suggestions for what they can do to help conserve biodiversity, as well as examples of what some hotels around the world are already doing on such issues as water conservation, control of waste production etc. Specifically this section looks at taking action in various ways including :
Hotel restaurants: using sustainable sources of food supplies, especially fish and seafood, agricultural products and wild game.
Guest rooms and public areas: Making responsible choices in terms of wood; medicinal and aromatic plants for amenities and spa products; ornamental plants and animals for public areas.
Hotel souvenir shops: Avoiding souvenirs produced from threatened or protected plant and animal species.
Hotel grounds and gardens: Using indigenous plants for landscaping and minimizing light and noise.
In the destination: Promoting responsible recreation activities and excursions as well as supporting local biodiversity conservation efforts.
To assist hoteliers, Part III provides 13 fact sheets produced by TRAFFIC, an international wildlife trade monitoring network, on such themes as wildlife-based souvenirs, sustainable wood sources, sustainable sources of fish, crustaceans and so on.
Finally, the two Appendices help hoteliers think about communication issues, outlining the development of a two-part communication strategy explaining the hotel’s biodiversity strategy to staff and suppliers, and to guests and other stakeholders (NGOs, media etc) so that both target groups understand the hotel’s actions and are aware of what they can do to help.
The Publication can be downloaded here (4.7MB): http://data.iucn.org/dbtw-wpd/edocs/2008-031.pdf.
With best wishes, Sandra Hails, Ramsar Secretariat
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Sandra HAILS
CEPA Programme Officer
Ramsar Convention Secretariat
Rue Mauverney 28, 1196 Gland, Switzerland
hails@ramsar.org
Tel: +41 22 9990176
Fax: +41 22 9990169
