As tourism professionals, we know that most tourism businesses need help and guidance to become more sustainable. We have tailored our training program for hospitality professionals, tour operators and destination managers or authorities. Welcome to a greener future.
THE CHALLENGE IN TOURISM
With climate change and a more concerned public after the pandemic, most travelers are now demanding more responsible and greener travel options according to key travel surveys (booking.com and others). Hotels, tour operators, travel agencies and even destinations that don’t address this pressing issue are already losing business and don’t know where to begin.
THE SOLUTION
Embracing a greener philosophy will make travel and tourism businesses more competitive, bring in more business and prepare for green certification where appropriate while lowering operational costs. Going green and marketing the product accordingly will help tourism businesses achieve this aim. Our training, consulting and guidance are designed to deliver on this vision.
Why Sustainable Tourism Training?
- Increase competitiveness
- Help attract more business
- Bring in higher paying customers
- Improve branding and marketing efforts
- Get ready for the future of tourism
What will attendees learn?
- Gain an in-depth understanding of sustainable tourism
- Access tools and resources needed to become green
- Apply sustainable tourism practices more efficiently
- Certify your business
- Market your green business and attract more clients
Who will benefit from this training?
- Hospitality and tourism managers
- Marketing managers in the tourism industry
- Quality officers and sustainability officers
- Tour operators and travel agents
- DMOs, municipalities and government representatives
Understanding sustainability
- What is the definition of sustainable tourism and what are its main principles?
- Why is sustainability crucial for the tourism sector and business success?
- How do the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals tie into tourism?
- Understanding overlapping terms such as ecotourism, responsible tourism, sustainable tourism and regenerative tourism.
Implementing sustainability
- How can I move from Social Corporate Responsibility to operational sustainability and why should I do so?
- How do I form a sustainable tourism strategy for a travel or tourism business?
- What are the key criteria that tourism businesses have to meet in order to be sustainable?
- Operational, environmental, social and economic criteria required for hospitality businesses to become green and be eligible for certification.
What others are doing: good practices
- Best practices and policies that hotels, travel agencies, tour operators and airlines are implementing.
- Best practices for destinations and criteria for locations (towns, municipalities or even countries) that want to become more sustainable.
- Sustainability in air travel, keeping in mind that many European travelers are leading the trend in seeking rail and maritime transport in favor of air travel.
Sustainable tourism and digitalization
Digital technology can play a powerful role in directly or indirectly advancing sustainability in the tourism sector.
- Digital transformation: from pre-booking, eco-activity promotion and online check-in to Property Management Systems and the Internet of Things
- Electronic vouchers and tickets for booking accommodation, travel, local transport, tours and experiences
- Location-based/geo-based services for better traveler experiences
- Virtual reality experiences, virtual museums, visits and tours
- Enhanced communication with travelers before, during and after their trip
- Data analysis, Big Data and remote sensors to understand travelers’ needs and map tourism flow, including seasonality
- Providing your guests with high-quality connectivity which may result in longer stays
Sustainable tourism marketing
- What is a sustainable tourism marketing strategy and how can you design relevant messages?
- How can you communicate sustainability to all stakeholder groups in the tourism sector and who are these stakeholders?
- How can you promote your green credentials in key booking engines and online platforms? (Booking.com, Expedia, TripAdvisor and others).
- Enhancing guest experience through informative narratives and storytelling with respect to local culture, cuisine, history, nature and biodiversity
- What happens when hospitality businesses downplay or exaggerate their green practices, i.e. green hushing and greenwashing?
- Examples and case studies from the industry.
Sustainability in Food & Beverage
- How can you make your F&B offerings more sustainable (i.e. more cost effective, better for the guests, better for the environment)?
- How can you adapt your F&B operations accordingly?
- Buying local, considering the Slow Food movement and farm-to-table principles, offering more plant-based options, eliminating food waste, composting and choosing less energy intensive cooking methods
Sustainable tourism certifications
- Getting certified for sustainability depends on many factors: whether there’s a national certification scheme, how ready you are to get certified, the type of business, the cost of certification, where you are in the world, and how recognized the certificate is.
- How are the criteria being harmonized across the globe?
- We will help you identify your needs and navigate through different certification schemes that fit with your requirements and type of tourism business.
Green technologies for hospitality
- Renewable energy, eco-friendly building materials and resource-saving technologies are already contributing to a more sustainable tourism sector.
- More efficient green solutions and products, emerging now more than ever, provide significant savings, recover initial investments and support environmental protection while still maintaining guest satisfaction.
- Applications and examples in geothermal energy, water conservation, waste management, bioclimatic architecture and other key technologies or solutions.
SUSTAINABLE TOURISM TRAINING, MEDVENTURE LTD.
The Founder and Chief Sustainability Strategist of MedVenture, Iyad Kayali brings over 20 years of experience in the hospitality and tourism industry, with significant expertise in eco-tourism and sustainability.
Considered one of the chief sustainable tourism experts in the Eastern Mediterranean, Middle East, and Balkan region, he has trained hundreds of travel and tourism professionals – including those working in European non-profits, entrepreneurs, students, government agencies, and small to large-scale hotels and tourism operators – to develop sustainability across the tourism value chain and create a sustainable business model for growth.
In addition to his tailored training and consulting, Iyad is the creator and founder of Ecotourism-Greece.com, the first portal for sustainable tourism in Greece. A graduate of the International Hotel and Tourism Training Institutes (IHTTI) in Switzerland, he recently completed training with the US-based Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) and EU-based Eco-Tandem Academy.
Iyad speaks 6 languages and is currently based in Athens, Greece.