International hotel conference goes green

Sustainable tourism top of the bill at the International Hotel and Restaurant Association conference.

This years conference took place at the Victoria and Jungfrau hotel in Interlaken, Switzerland.

Sustainable tourism heavyweights were out in force at this year’s IH&RA conference, beginning with the stage-setting opening event by Switzerland’s former president and tourism professional Adolf Ogi. Now a special advisor to the UN on Sport, Development and Peace, Mr Ogi called the conference’s attention to the massive sustainable benefits available through tourism at every level.

Under the slogan  "Get Natural" Switzerland is making a bid for sustainable tourism growth, emphasizing the quality of its local products and the power of its interconnected sustainable transport systems. Federico Sommaruga of Switzerland Tourism introduced the destination and its plans to the delegates.

Newly re-elected secretary General of the UN World Tourism Organisation, Taleb Rifai outlined the sustainable tourism opportunities of the current over 1billion international tourists and signed a memorandum of association with the IH&RA consolidating their hospitality related partnership.

The meat of the conference panels in the two-day conference was related to sustainable tourism.

Professor Harold Goodwin of the International Centre of Responsible Tourism appeared extremely pessimistic about the slow development of sustainable tourism, going so far as to call for the word "Sustainable" to be banned as it is frequently used cynically and has come to mean little.

On the other hand the panel moderator, Professor Geoffrey Lipman, passionately espoused the benefits of tourism and green growth, which, in his view, could transform the global economy, and much else. Giulia Carbone of the IUCN made a plea for the inclusion of biodiversity in tourism plans.

The second sustainability panel, moderated by Valere Tjolle brought together a top group of sustainable tourism professionals including Paulina Godfrey Hilton’s Senior Sustainability Manager, Rebecca Hawkins of the Responsible Hospitality Partnership plus Helena Egan of Tripadvisor – shortly to roll out their Green Leaders programme into Europe and Canada. A challenging line up indeed.

Franck Trouet, the remaining panel member brought to bear the power of rubbish with his presentation on BioWaste – making sustainability sexy! SEE THE VIDEO

Valere Tjolle

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