#30 | 25/04/2024

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We have been at the GSTC's Global Sustainable Tourism Conference in Stockholm this week. The event kicked off at the City Hall with a meal and networking in the Golden Hall, its walls glowing with mosaics made from 18 million pieces of gold. Yesterday's sessions were held at Cirkus and Hasselbacken with experts talking about over tourism, biodiversity, bleisure travel, sustainability certifications, the EU Green Claims Directive and more. Today we attended sessions at the Museum of Ethnography on accessibility and inclusion, challenges and opportunities for SME certification and sustainable MICE.

Randy Durband, CEO GSTC also gave an update on what the organisation is doing and commented that the way travel and tourism is made up means a meeting of minds is a complex situation but one which needs to be embraced by working holistically. "I’ve been in this sector for 40 years and I don't think we are one sector. We are a collection of sectors. It's extremely complex and we need to embrace and recognise the sheer complexity of it. The challenges are great and we need to work holistically as best we can."

Other news this week includes Hilton's pilot for zero waste menus, Marriott verifying its science-based emissions reduction targets with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), a report on biodiversity by WTTC, UN Tourism and the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, and Wyndham honouring the Greensboro Six.

We'll be posting a news roundup from Stockholm over the next few days,

Until next time,

Felicity Cousins
Editor, Sustainable Hotel News

Photo of Stockholm by Johan Anblick on Unsplash

Hilton has launched a zero waste menu in four flagship hotels across the UK to mark Stop Food Waste Day, today. According to UNEP’s Food Waste Index Report 2024, one billion tonnes of food is wasted annually, with the food services industry responsible for more than a quarter of the waste produced. An estimated 8-10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions are associated with food that is not consumed. Hilton’s zero waste menus, which will be available to guests for one month, are being piloted as part of the group’s Travel with Purpose target, to reduce waste sent to landfill by 50 per cent by 2030.

Marriott International has become the largest global hospitality company to verify its near and long-term science-based emissions reduction targets with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). The SBTi is a collaboration between the CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, the We Mean Business Coalition, the World Resources Institute (WRI), and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The organisation develops tools that allow businesses to set greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets in line with data-driven methodology.

Wyndham Rewards has unveiled the three finalists hoping to be selected to paint a wall mural at the Gillespie Golf Course in Greensboro, North Carolina. Vincent Ballentine of Brooklyn, NY; Raman Bhardwaj of Greensboro, NC; and Abel Jackson of Charlotte, NC, have been selected by a committee of key community figures and organisations from applications by more than 50 artists nationwide. The project aims to honour the Greensboro Six, a group of black men who in 1955 played a round of golf at the whites-only Gillespie course. The show of defiance against segregation took place just a week after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus, and led to the six men being arrested, convicted of trespassing and spending 15 days in jail. Their actions and subsequent court cases eventually led to the Gillespie Golf Course desegragating, and in 1961 the Greater Greensboro Open (now known as the Wyndham Championship) become the first PGA Tour event in the South to welcome a Black player – Charlie Sifford.

A new landmark ‘Nature Positive’ report has been published setting out the hospitality industry’s plans to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. Launched to coincide with Earth Day 2024, the “Nature Positive Travel & Tourism in Action” report is a collaboration between the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), the World Tourism Organisation (UN Tourism) and the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance. The report serves as the tourism sector’s pledge to support the implementation of the UN’s Biodiversity Plan, officially known as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Booking.com has released new research which shows while sustainable travel is important to 83 per cent of travellers, nearly a third are “tired” of hearing about climate change all the time. The OTA gathered the data for its annual survey from 31,000 travellers across 34 countries and territories during February this year. The research found there is a continued sense of desire and awareness for sustainable travel, with 83 per cent of travellers confirming that sustainable travel is important to them, but according to this year’s study a sense of weariness among travellers could be an issue with 28 per cent of travellers reporting they are tired of hearing about climate change all the time.

Thousands of people took to the streets of Tenerife’s capital, Santa Cruz at the end of last week to protest against mass tourism in the Canary Islands. The islands were visited by nearly 14 million foreign tourists in 2023, an increase of 13 per cent from the previous year, according to official data. Local people are concerned about the rising cost of rental accommodation and over tourism damaging the natural resources of the islands. They were not complaining about tourism, only the mis-management of travel and tourism on the islands.

Two more reports from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) and Microsoft have highlighted how Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be used to shape the future of travel and tourism. The reports were launched during the global tourism body’s participation at the UN General Assembly in New York. According to WTTC, AI has the power to revolutionise how businesses in the Travel & Tourism sector operate, offering opportunities for growth and innovation.

In our FOCUS ON series we look at common questions, acronyms and organisations when it comes to discussing sustainability and hotels. Today we are looking at the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC).

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