The new collection will offer hotels the chance to uniquely distinguish themselves, for being ecologically friendly, while also meeting consumer demand for alternative eco-friendly accommodation in one simple directory. The launching is scheduled on World Responsible Tourism Day at WTM in November.
Following a year of research, GHO's Eco Collection will include a range of strict and monitored membership prerequisites. In addition to the basic requirement of member hotels operating and auditing a comprehensive energy management system, other criteria include:
- Conservation of local biological and cultural diversity through protection of ecosystems
- Promotion of sustainable use of biodiversity by providing jobs to local population
- Sharing of socio-economic benefits with local communities and indigenous people
- Increasing environmental and cultural knowledge among staff
- Minimising tourism's own environmental impact
- Affordability and lack of waste in the form of luxury
- Showcasing local culture, flora and fauna as the hotel's main attractions
Membership of the Eco Collection will be divided into three tiers to recognise the different stages of hotels striving to excel in ecologically friendly practices. These three tiers will include hotels that have achieved the highest level of environmental and social accreditation in prestigious benchmarking and certification programmes, such as Green Globe, hotels that have demonstrated above industry average performances against a range of environmental indicators and those that demonstrate significant improvements on the extent of their ecological footprint.
GHO will donate a percentage of the revenue generated through room nights booked through GHO to a conservation organisation, soon to be announced.
GHO Director of Global Sales, Genevičve Materne, commented: "We believe that we are meeting the increase in consumer demand for eco friendly products and services by offering environmentally conscious tourism options. Once again GHO is leading the way by offering solutions to key industry concerns".
The Eco Collection will be GHO's fifth, adding to the luxury romantic, spa, golf and business and incentive travel collections that are already well established. The new Eco Collection hotels will be bookable alongside those in the other directories on the Great Hotels of the World and Special Hotels of the World websites.
