Preferred Hotel Group has acquired Beyond Green Travel for an undisclosed fee, commenting “the time is now to take sustainable tourism to the next level”.
The deal came after the UNWTO released a set of recommendations to help global tourism “grow back better” after the pandemic, including a number of sustainable strategies.
Beyond Green Travel developed content and strategies for companies such as Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, The Travel Corporation, Wilderness Safaris, and National Geographic Travel. The company has also advised destinations and governments on how to successfully implement sustainable tourism.
Preferred CEO Lindsey Ueberroth said: “As we look ahead to the future of travel, particularly during this period of economic recovery, we believe more than ever that the time is now to take sustainable tourism to the next level.
“Working alongside Costas and his team, we are excited to create a sustainable tourism platform that will enable our brand promise of 'Believe in Travel' to help our destination and hospitality clients infuse genuine, holistic, and inspiring sustainability best practices into their daily operations and overall ethos."
Beyond Green founder Costas Christ, who will remain as president of the group, said: “We are at a transformative crossroads in the history of modern travel, where the need for economic recovery and social change align directly with the core values of sustainable tourism, including a commitment to diversity, equality, and the wellbeing of local communities, environmentally friendly practice, and support for the protection of cultural and natural heritage that are changing the travel and tourism industry for the better.”
UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili, said: “These specific recommendations give countries a check-list of possible measures to help our sector sustain the jobs and support the companies at risk at this very moment. Mitigating the impact on employment and liquidity, protecting the most vulnerable and preparing for recovery, must be our key priorities.
“We still do not know what the full impact of COVID-19 will be on global tourism. However, we must support the sector now while we prepare for it to come back stronger and more sustainable. Recovery plans and programmes for tourism will translate into jobs and economic growth.”
The organisation provided 23 recommendations, divided into three key areas: Managing the Crisis and Mitigating the Impact, Providing Stimulus and Accelerating Recovery and Preparing for Tomorrow.
For the latter, the UNWTO called for greater emphasis to be placed on the sector’s contribution to the Sustainable Development Agenda and to build resilience learning from the lessons of the current crisis.
Pololikashvili stressed that “for tourism to fulfil its potential to help societies and whole countries recover from this crisis, our response needs to be quick, consistent, united and ambitious”.
The Recommendations said: “Embracing sustainability more fully will help tourism as the sector establishes closer links with the wider United Nations system. A resilient sector is vital if tourism is to become a key partner of UN agencies, international organisations and international finance institutions as the global community works to realise the 2030 agenda”.
The UN 2030 agenda looks at a plan of action for “people, planet and prosperity”. The organisation said: “We recognise that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest global challenge and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development.”
The UNWTO has also announced https://www.hospitalityinsights.com/content/unwto-backs-sustainable-training
plans to work alongside IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, to fund sustainable training programmes in developing countries.
These will focus on both stimulating tourism’s recovery from the current crisis, while at the same time promoting green financing to enhance sustainability across the whole of the tourism value chain.
Pololikashvili said: “Sustainable tourism should no longer be considered a special niche. Instead, this pause in global travel offers us a chance to rethink tourism and make the whole sector more sustainable as we grow back better and stronger. This new initiative with IFC will provide valuable guidelines on Sustainable Tourism Investments that enhance tourism’s contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals.”
The UNWTO said that there were 200,000 hotels providing 18 million beds worldwide, with a further 2.4 million rooms in the pipeline. These alone account for 1% of global greenhouses gas emissions and so increasing the sustainability of this part of the global tourism sector can make a significant contribution to climate-related Sustainable Development Goals.
Insight: As we heard on Day Three of Hotel Optimisation, when hotels fully reopen around the world, they will need to be sparkly clean and smelling of disinfectant. Can you be truly safe without everything being sprayed with those products featuring the skull and crossbones? Guests - those ones still asking for daily room cleans - say no. The answer is yes.
It would be tempting to think that you can move back from those sustainable goals now that times have changed and cleanliness is even more important than free wifi, but that is very much not the case. Nor does it need to be an impossible task to do both.
As Preferred has noted, guests want their stays to come with a side of design and great amenities, but sustainable tourism is no longer a nice-to-have, but a must have. With air travel on a temporary pause, it is tempting to think that Greta’s dreams have come true and we’re heading for a green tomorrow, but this is unlikely to be the case. What the pause may instead have done is move sustainable issues if not to the top of the list, then slightly higher. For guests and, critically, investors.
Brenda Collins, Managing Director – UK, Ireland, Nordics, The Netherlands, Preferred Hotels & Resorts, said: "I believe that where asset refinancing will be required, businesses will need to deliver evidence of sustainability solutions in order to tap into the ‘Green’ loans and grants which may be easier to access that standard funding. Sustainability best practices have been pushed up the agenda as a result of Covid and we don’t time to waste."