TUI UK will present a Green Medal to properties displaying the highest level of environmental and social awareness next month.
The winning hotels will be identified in new year brochures and on the TUI website, allowing customers to opt for an eco-friendly place to stay.
Only 16 properties will be given medals, but the scheme is just the start of a programme to rate TUI’s entire portfolio of 20,000 properties by the end of next year.
Hotels in Greece, Cyprus, Spain, Egypt and Bulgaria will be among the winners.
TUI has rated about 4,500 properties so far – each visited and checked against more than 100 criteria.
These include: Are automatic devices installed to switch off air conditioning or heating? Is waste separated and recycled? Are local products chosen over imported ones? Do all employees have written contracts and benefits such as sick pay, maternity leave and training?
The scheme has been imported from TUI Germany, where environmental ratings were developed in the early 1990s. TUI UK has added a list of social criteria partly drawn from a separate project developed with the Federation of Tour Operators.
Group industry affairs executive Danielle Chapman said: “It’s not about naming and shaming. We want to work with properties at the bottom [of the ratings] to help them improve. The best way to encourage people to join in was to launch the scheme.”
The company has checked most Mediterranean properties, but has yet to include the Caribbean. Chapman hopes the medal winners will see a rise in bookings and encourage an all-round rise in standards.
TUI will make a responsible tourism training module available to agents online within the next month.