07 May 2009

TUI gets tough with hotels over sustainability

TUI Travel UK & Ireland is stepping up its efforts to make its business sustainable by getting tougher with its hotel partners.

It plans to audit 400 more hotels under its Travelife scheme, which encourages hotels to look after the environment, their employees and local communities.

If all 400 hotels fulfill the criteria, TUI said over 50% of UK customers would be staying in a more sustainable hotel on holiday in the future.

TUI is recruiting two regional sustainability advisors to help carry out the six-day audits and assist the company’s quality co-ordinators in resorts worldwide.

The company has also introduced a new sustainable development agreement into all its hotel contracts.

The contract requires hoteliers to initiate, or continue to develop, a sustainability programme.

The auditing for Travelife only lasts a few hours, however for the new recruits they will spend up to six days auditing our biggest properties with a high number of TUI customers, a spokeswoman said.

Commercial director David Burling said: "Sustainability is a key focus for TUI Travel and we are dedicated to increasing hoteliers’ understanding of their impact on the environment. Together with our suppliers, we’re seeking to make all areas of our operations more sustainable.

"Soon, customers will know that if they book a holiday through Thomson or First Choice, their hotel will have signed a contract agreeing to initiate a sustainability programme - otherwise, they wouldn’t be featured in our brochures."

By Bev Fearis

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Your Comments (3)

Tui's own hotels

Commendable, but am jsut a little surprised they didn't start with the obvious - telling us how compliant their own '000s of owned hotel rooms across the Med, Caribbean and elsewhere already are before imposing similar or other criteria on their other hotel suppliers to hep them gain market share or just be good citizens of the planet, without the need to be so seen?

By Kevin Murphy, Monday, May 11, 2009
A positive start in the right direction

If this is a serious initiative, then we should applaud TUI. Its sister company First Choice currently identifies all hotels that have been awarded bronze, silver or gold travelife award status. So great in theory? However, the reality is not as promising. How many hotels will actually receive a travelife sustainability award. If you look in the current First Choice Brochure, I think only 3 hotels in the whole brochure are sustainable enough to qualify for the travelife awards. So if TUI audit 500 hotels, how many will qualify? 2, 3, 4? It certainly won't be many. Will TUI encourage / force hoteliers to become more sustainable? Do they have the influence? Will the hotelier simply take their business to another tour operator, say from Russia who cares nothing about sustainability? The final pessamistic note is how sustainable are the actual travelife awards? They're not as 'green' as you think. You can win the award for 'sustainable' staff training and development, and still continue to pollute the planet and destroy local culture and values. However, I do not wish to seem too negative. It is a small step in the right direction, and a big step forward from the situation in the late 1990s', When I worked for a major rival of TUI. Then, sustainability, the environment was a dirty word that got in the way of profit. I remember once highlighting an issue about one of our hotels that was breaking local pollution laws, and was told ' that is our most profitable unit. If you want to keep your job, keep your mouth shut!' So all in all, things are slowly getting better. Simon, travel and tourism lecturer

By Simon Kimber, Friday, May 8, 2009
A positive start in the right direction

If this is a serious initiative, then we should applaud TUI. Its sister company First Choice currently identifies all hotels that have been awarded bronze, silver or gold travelife award status. So great in theory? However, the reality is not as promising. How many hotels will actually receive a travelife sustainability award. If you look in the current First Choice brochure, I think only 3 hotels in the whole brochure are sustainable enough to qualify for the travelife awards. So if TUI audit 500 hotels, how many will qualify? 2, 3, 4? It certainly won't be many. Will TUI encourage / force hoteliers to become more sustainable? Do they have the influence? Will the hotelier simply take their business to another tour operator, say from Russia who cares nothing about sustainability? The final pessamistic note is how sustainable are the actual travelife awards? They're not as 'green' as you think. You can win the award for 'sustainable' staff training and development, and still continue to pollute the planet and destroy local culture and values. However, I do not wish to seem too negative. It is a small step in the right direction, and a big step forward from the situation in the late 1990s' when I worked for a major rival of TUI. Then, sustainability, the environment was a dirty word that got in the way of profit. I remember once highlighting an issue about one of our hotels that was breaking local pollution laws, and was told 'That is our most profitable unit. If you want to keep your job, keep your mouth shut!' So all in all, things are slowly getting better. Simon, travel and tourism lecturer

By Tony Jolley, Friday, May 8, 2009