Co-Lab Rhodes: TUI Tour Guides Switch to e-Bikes, Number of Cars Reduced by Half

Photo source: TUI Group

Global tour operator TUI on Tuesday announced that the members of its service team on Rhodes now travel from hotel to hotel on the Greek island on e-bikes.

Part of the Destination Co-Lab Rhodes initiative, TUI’s pilot project is part of the company’s initiatives for sustainable transport at holiday destinations. Thirty e-bikes and 30 cargo bikes recently arrived for TUI’s 250 tour guides on the Greek island.

According to TUI, the bikes will help reduce emissions and provide the team with more environmentally friendly transport options. The Rhodes team will use the e-bikes for distances longer than a 40-minute walk, while regular bikes will be available to the team for distances longer than 20 minutes. TUI says the number of cars available will be reduced from more than 100 to 60. By 2024, the number is expected to be further reduced. TUI said that the e-bikes pilot project brings the island one step closer to its goal of being climate neutral by 2030.

Photo source: TUI Group

TUI Group CEO Sebastian Ebel highlighted in an announcement that short journeys by car are increasingly a thing of the past on Rhodes.

“Colleagues in guest services are using e-bikes and bicycles when going from hotel to hotel on the island. Only for longer distances will they continue to use cars,” Ebel said, adding that Co-Lab Rhodes is the ideal place to launch the pilot project and gain insights.

Launched in January 2022, the Destination Co-Lab Rhodes project is the result of a collaboration between TUI Group, the TUI Care Foundation, the regional authority of the South Aegean and the government of Greece. The project aims to transform the Greek island of Rhodes into the very first sustainable tourism destination in the world.

According to TUI, Rhodes is an important destination for TUI to develop new sustainability initiatives.

“The Destination Co-Lab Rhodes was founded for this purpose. Experiences and initiatives from the Co-Lab Rhodes are to be transferred to other holiday destinations and thus advance the industry in its sustainable transformation. Both approaches count for TUI: the major strategic initiatives and smaller projects that can be implemented immediately, are role models for other destinations and thus can have a major impact,” the company said.

Photo source: TUI Group

The e-bikes pilot project is part of TUI’s sustainability commitment. At the beginning of the year, TUI presented its sustainability agenda, which includes ambitious plans and targets to enable the positive effects of tourism to unfold and to significantly reduce the company’s ecological footprint.