Meliá Hotels International, Barceló Hotel Group, NH Hotel Group and Radisson Hotel Group, which together comprise a very significant percentage of the Spanish and European hotel market, and other leading groups with 25,000 hotels in total, launch an initiative to establish a common definition of sustainability hotel to promote responsible travel and tourism.

In the months to come, the hotel groups involved in this initiative will work closely with the WTTC, the Sustainable Hospitality Alliance and the main stakeholders to finalize essential sustainability actions that have a demonstrable positive impact, and will collaborate to share the tools and best practices with other members and with the industry in general, to ensure that all hotels undertake the evolution towards the objectives of the COP21 Paris Agreement.

“This alliance is an excellent platform that should lead us to identify and promote opportunities that benefit society as a whole,” said Gabriel Escarrer, vice president of Meliá. Photo: Meliá Hotels.

“Meliá Hotels International is proud to be part of the Basic Sustainability framework. Faced with the current climate emergency, all industries, and also tourism, must join forces and assume their own commitments, taking into account their own reality. This alliance is an excellent platform that should lead us to identify and promote opportunities that benefit society as a whole. Sharing knowledge, innovation and good practices, through clear and homogeneous measurement indicators, is the best way to, together, overcome the challenge, ”said Gabriel Escarrer Jaume, vice president and CEO of Meliá Hotels International.

Raúl González, CEO of Barceló Hotel Group, has stated: “At Barceló Hotel Group we are fully aware of the challenge we face to achieve a sustainable transformation in one of the most relevant economic sectors on a global scale. For this reason, we consider that this alliance is a great opportunity to support and promote the path towards sustainable tourism, as well as being an active contribution towards the fulfillment of the sustainable development objectives ”.