BERLIN - The President of HOTREC, Ms. Susanne Kraus-Winkler and the CEO of HOTREC, Mr. Christian de Barrin met the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Secretary General Mr. Taleb Rifai to discuss on how to strengthen sustainable tourism across Europe.
HOTREC published in November 2015 a policy paper on the so-called ‘Sharing’ economy with the title ‘Levelling the playing field’, which UNWTO contributed to. Most recently, HOTREC published guidelines to reduce food waste and recommendations to manage food donations as HOTREC’s first contribution to the celebrations of the United Nations International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development 2017.
New topics were discussed to work on together, in particular in relation to tourism and security, energy efficiency in hospitality businesses and gastronomy.
"We welcome HOTREC's partnership and support in developing sustainable tourism particularly as we celebrate the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development in 2017. The world is changing and we need to take care of our resources and also ensure a safe and seamless tourism experience" said UNWTO Secretary General, Mr. Taleb Rifai.
HOTREC will join UNWTO’s Task Force on Tourism and Security to be launched in May 2017. In addition, HOTREC will work on developing recommendations for hotels in particular, but also for restaurants, to generate energy savings.
"HOTREC is grateful to UNWTO for its leadership in making tourism a driver not only for jobs and growth, but also for education, social inclusion and peace" added Susanne Kraus-Winkler, President of HOTREC.
As 2018 will be the European Year of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, HOTREC will also be working on promoting gastronomy together with UNWTO and other stakeholders.
"Following successful partnerships on new tourism platform services or the so called sharing economy, Nearly Zero Energy Hotels (neZEH), the reduction of food waste and the development of food donations, we look forward to further cooperating with UNWTO on energy efficiency in hospitality businesses, gastronomy and tourism and security" concluded Christian de Barrin, CEO of HOTREC.
