Green Hotels
Valletta, 13/07/09
The Malta Tourism Authority has during the past year, introduced an eco-certification scheme for the greening of hotels in Malta. This consists of a detailed environmental audit. To participate, hotels must comply with a number of criteria, all aimed at improving an hotel's environmental performance and increasing environmental awareness amongst employees.
De Marco said that eco-certification has grown in popularity in the last 12 months, partly due to the ever-increasing importance that hotel management and consumers have been giving to the environment and for consumers to search for green hotels within the industry.
"This can be confirmed from a survey carried out this year by the Malta Tourism Authority with a sample size of 500 tourists. From the people interviewed over 47 per cent stated that they consider environmental issues when booking their accommodation whilst almost 57 per cent of the sample is willing to pay an average of eight per cent more for eco-friendly accommodation", de Marco explained. He stressed that while the scheme is very popular amongst five star properties, and there is a fair share of interest amongst four star hotels, more two and three star hotels are being encouraged to apply for certification.
Two hotels have recently been successful in joining this eco-certification shceme, Radisson Blu Golden Sands and Paradise Bay Resort. There are now 14 eco-certified hotels with a further seven that have been audited, but still require some more time to meet all the necessary criteria, de Marco explained. "Once these seven hotels get certified we will have over 30 per cent of the available bed stock from eco-certified hotels".
The certificate and glass plaque were presented to the Radisson Blu Golden Sands Resort & Spa and to the Paradise Bay Resort Hotel by the parliamentary secretary for tourism Mario de Marco and MTA CEO Josef Formosa Gauci.
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