FRENCH multinational hospitality company Accor has joined forces with global travel platform Expedia Group to expand the UNESCO Sustainable Tourism Pledge (The Pledge) into 96 countries to promote sustainable tourism globally.
This tripartite agreement will see 3,358 Accor hotels globally join together to promote environmental sustainability and sustainable tourism worldwide.
The Pledge was launched in October 2019 with the Tourism Authority of Thailand, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and Expedia. It promotes responsible practices, community resilience and heritage conservation, with the goal of changing the nature and impact of global tourism. Participating parties commit to supporting the reduction and elimination of single-use plastics and promoting local economy and culture.
Accor properties are among the over 500 hotels in Thailand that have signed The Pledge since the Thai microsite was established in 2020.
“The expansion of The Pledge comes at a time when travellers’ awareness of and demand for tourism sustainability practices continues to grow, with Millennials and GenZ taking the lead with heightened environmental consciousness,” said Expedia and Accor in a joint statement when announcing their partnership.
Markus Keller, SVP sales & distribution at Accor, stated the hospitality group has a “responsibility to offer sustainable and tangible solutions” to its guests to reduce the impact the sector has on the environment.
“Accor and all of the hotels in its network have long-standing commitments in this area, for our decision to remove all single-use plastic items from guest experience in our hotels by 2022. We want to accelerate our efforts, which is why we are today joining the UNESCO Sustainable Tourism Pledge in partnership with Expedia Group.”
He added that it is Accor’s “ambition” to continue to drive the change towards positive hospitality. “Joining The Pledge with 3,358 of our hotels is a continuation of our group’s sustainable development programme, Planet 21 – Acting Here.”
Accor launched Planet 21 in 2011 and is based around four strategic priorities: work with our employees, involve our guests, innovate with our partners and work with local communities; two key issues are tackling food and building sustainability. It added that “hotels can be examples of outstanding green practices and forces for positive change in the community. All it takes is to start with a few simple commitments.”
Zuhairah Washington, Expedia Group senior vice president, strategic accounts, added the partnership with Accor “is about taking needed steps at a global scale to minimise waste in the tourism sector”.
She elaborated: “The UNESCO Sustainable Tourism Pledge aims to turn words into action and is a testimony of our growing commitment to collaborating closely with the hospitality sector in order to enhance environmental and sustainable tourism consciousness and practices across the world. Everyone needs to play their part in promoting sustainable tourism and helping preserve travel destinations.”
In a related development, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development has provided 2 million euros to help expand the Pledge across seven countries – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Georgia, Indonesia, Kenya, Namibia and Vietnam. The programme will help UNESCO’s work to make tourism emerge stronger from the COVID-19 crisis and encourage sustainable development in the sector.
“The collective effort is all the more crucial as the pandemic has hit the tourism and culture sectors hard. We hope that the efforts of Germany, Accor and Expedia, will encourage other major players in the sector to join us and invest to offer more responsible tourism,” said UNESCO director general Audrey Azoulay commented,
View video of how Accor hotels are working with the Pledge
• Featured image credit: Petmal/Getty Images
