Radisson Hotel Group (RHG) is continuing its journey to sustainability aligned with its commitment to be Net-Zero by 2050 while also synchronising with new tourism trends in the post pandemic era.
Ramzy Fenianos, chief development officer for Asia Pacific, says RHG is driven by its three key responsible business pillars: ‘Think People, Think Community, Think Planet.’
“Our first environmental policy was in 1989. We have already significantly reduced the footprint over the past years as we are aiming to reduce our carbon emissions by 30% by 2025,” he says. “The ultimate goal is to be Net-Zero by 2050.”
As part of this commitment, RHG partnered with the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTCC) to establish a new globally recognised set of sustainability indicators referred to as hotel sustainability basics.
HOTEL SUSTAINABILITY BASICS
Together with WTTC, RHG has been one of the initiators of hotel sustainability basics that are driven by a global collection of hotel groups, associations and destinations with a shared vision and commitment to creating a more sustainable hotel industry.
“Other hospitality companies are joining, creating a collective goal through concerted efforts. One company alone would not be able to make a difference to the extent needed,” he says. “We also make hotel sustainability basics simple to follow, enabling hotels with the ability to help us achieve sustainability goals.”
Hotel sustainability basics is a commitment to delivering a defined set of criteria, with the positive mind set to continually include more sustainable practices within RHG’s hotels. The criteria include reducing energy, water use, waste and carbon emissions.
This commitment has a real impact on the planet, communities, and people which are RHG’s three key pillars of responsible business.
“Sustainability can start with construction of hotels from day one,” he says. “With the planning, we can build hotels that are LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified.”
“Now we are pushing the use of in-house bottling stations. We already have these facilities in many of our hotels. That way we don’t need either plastic bottles or glass bottles that are filled somewhere else and brought to the site. As such, our on-site water bottling stations are very practical and very eco-sustainable.”
In India where RHG is one of the largest hotel operators, has a partnership with SunFuel Electric, an electric vehicle charging player, to provide destination charging to RHG’s hotels in India.
“We have a hotel every four hours travel distance all over India, so you will never have an issue with charging your car because you will always find a Radisson hotel on the road,” he says.
“The idea is to have all the hotels with electric vehicle charging stations so that guests could go from a Radisson property to another all over India without having a problem.”
NEW TOURISM TREND
Travellers are now willing to pay more to stay in a sustainable hotel, Mr Fenianos observes. “Following the pandemic, travellers today are looking for hotels that are sustainable, hygienic, safe and comfortable,” he says.
“There was a wake-up call during the pandemic where everyone realised that the planet is fragile, and we need to protect it. This is also a response to new-generation travellers who are much more sustainability-conscious.”
Besides sustainability tourism, experiencing the locale is another new tourism trend as travellers look for. Using locally produced products and fusing local flavours also help carbon footprint.
“If we’re not importing goods and we’re using local products then it also helps sustainability,” he says.
“In Thailand, experiencing the locale could be enjoying a meal with locally farmed ingredients, such as the herbs to flavour dishes. It doesn’t have to be extreme. It can be small touches that affect the guests at any level. We want to immerse guests with the local touch and experience.”
Another new tourism trend is multi-generational travellers, says Mr Fenianos.
“People are travelling together more than before. We see a lot of families including two and three generations travelling in one party. They want to go to destinations where the parents, children and grandparents can enjoy together.
“This requires us to think about room configurations, for example having more connecting rooms and twin beds. Hotels also need to have a bit more leisure facilities and activities.”
RHG also sees a trend where travellers are more flexible about where they want to go and how they want to travel. They book hotel rooms in advance but they also cancel.
“We encourage everyone to book through our systems which allows them more flexibility,” he says. “When you book through Radisson Hotel website, you will have more flexibility with changes to your dates.”
“If you are a Radisson reward member, you can even have more benefits, flexibility and advantages,” he concludes.
