Travelife for Hotels & Accommodations, the internationally recognised certification scheme that promotes sustainability within the tourism industry, recently held three successful training seminars for hoteliers across three Greek islands.
The all-day seminars in Greece, were attended by over 150 participants and took place in May at Sentido Apollo Blue Hotel on Rhodes, the Creta Maris Beach Resort on Crete and the Zakynthos Cultural Center on Zakynthos.
“Hotels in Greece are increasingly recognising the business benefits of becoming a Travelife Member and working towards achieving our Gold certification”, said Travelife’s commercial director, Sören Stöber, adding that reduced costs, improved customer experience and additional promotion through tour operators and OTAs are key advantages for its members.
Travelife welcomes 200th member in Greece
During the period the seminars took place, Travelife welcomed its 200th member in Greece, highlighting the increased demand for Travelife and sustainability in the Greek tourism industry.
“We are delighted that there is an increasing demand for Travelife in Greece and we appreciate our hotel members’ commitment to making the Greek tourism industry more sustainable”, Mr Stöber said.
Attendees of the Travelife seminar held at the Apollo Blue Hotel in Rhodes.
Speakers at the Travelife seminars included hotel managers, tour operators and Crete’s sustainability initiative “We Do Local”. Hotel presentations were given by Travelife Gold Members from Creta Maris Beach on Crete, Castelli Hotel on Zakynthos and Sunwing Kalithea on Rhodes to showcase how they continually improve on their sustainability standards.
Thomas Cook gave a presentation to explain its tour operator strategy to encourage hotels to become Travelife certified.
“Travelife is a very fair and affordable system and it is part of our sustainability strategy to have more and more hotels in the portfolio to be certified against the criteria”, said Friederike Grupp, Sustainability Manager, Thomas Cook Germany, who gave a presentation during the seminar held on Rhodes.
Ms Grupp underlined that their customers spend most of their holiday time in the hotel — “so it is the best place to make a difference” — and that the demand for sustainable tourism is growing.
“To meet this customer demand it is of crucial importance that our most important hotel partners build up sustainability credentials by achieving a Travelife certification and communicate this achievement to our customers”, she said.
