The Travel Convention will be held next week at Travelife-certifed Costa Navarino in Greece. Travelife for Accommodation MD Carolyn Wincer explains why the certification is important
Too many travel industry ‘sustainability’ labels are “not robust”, according to Carolyn Wincer, managing director of the Travelife for Accommodation sustainability certification scheme owned by Abta.
So, Wincer is delighted that Abta’s Travel Convention in October will take place at the Travelife-certified Costa Navarino resort in Messenia, Greece.
She described the current state of certification in the industry as “confused” and said: “It’s important the industry event is at a property that has robust sustainability certification, because there are too many labels out there that aren’t robust at all.”
Wincer noted: “There is a certification label now gaining popularity [among hotels] which is conducted by a combination of self-certification and AI checks, by hotels putting a few documents online and no inspection. We would not certify anyone without a full site inspection looking at all aspects of sustainability.”
She is hoping the EU Directive on Green Claims, announced last year, “will cut through the confusion and strengthen the robustness of certification” when it’s finalised next year.
In the meantime, she suggests there is widespread misunderstanding of what sustainability certification means, saying: “It’s not about there not being a buffet or you not seeing any single-use plastics. If a hotel is newly certified, it may still have single-use plastics – we don’t want them to just throw things away. And there is nothing wrong with a buffet if you’re not wasting anything.”
She added: “Guests may think there is no recycling because they only see one bin in a room, but housekeeping is separating the rubbish.”
Wincer noted a problem with schemes which rely on self-auditing and customer feedback is that “most of this is behind the scenes”.
“A guest isn’t going to know if a hotel is composting behind the scenes or if it’s not paying the minimum wage or not giving staff long enough breaks. The only way to judge is to get an independent expert to go and look.”
She added: “The biggest challenge is getting people to understand the value of certification. People in travel say ‘We need to wait for customers to ask for this [sustainable travel]. Customers are not going to ask for it. But if you put a sustainability certificate in front of people, most people will go for it like they will go for Fair Trade coffee.”
Certified properties follow annual improvement cycle
Most Travelife hotel audits, required every two years, occur in the autumn when properties are less busy or closed.
But Costa Navarino was re-certified earlier this year in line with the latest Travelife certification criteria rolled out in January.
Wincer notes the resort “is on track to reduce its single-use plastics by 50% versus 2019 by the end of this year” and 100% of its electricity is purchased from renewable sources. She said: “Water use is high, but we require it does not impact the local water supply.”
Costa Navarino is one of the biggest employers in the area, employing 1,860 people in peak season, and she said the resort “does a lot in monitoring and protecting loggerhead turtles”.
She explained: “Certified properties must follow an annual improvement cycle – identifying areas for improvement and developing an action plan.”
Wincer said the enhanced criteria followed “feedback from auditors and from hotels”, with additional requirements on safeguarding children and anti-trafficking, “and more on labour exploitation”, including in the supply chain.
She added: “Guests’ understanding and knowledge in the trade are improving. But the whole industry needs to do more and needs to do it fast.”
The Travel Convention, October 7-9, Costa Navarino, Greece: abta.com/events/the-travel-convention