Hospitality Sector to Go Green
The Hanoi Times - The Hotel Department under the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) is planning to pilot a “labeling” program for eco-friendly hotels with sustainable tourism development across Vietnam later this year.
The program, approved by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, will award a “Sustainable Brand” tag for local hotels which meet the department’s criteria on environmental protection and sustainable development.
Nguyen Phuong Anh, the department’s deputy head, told The Saigon Times Daily the agency had completed 82 criteria for local hotels to be considered to receive the “Sustainable Brand.”
The criteria will include minimizing the impact of hotel operations on society and heritage sites and encouraging the hotels to employ local laborers, according to the deputy head.
The list of criteria would be sent to local hoteliers for feedback in late February and the department would launch the pilot program in the following months, she said.
“We will conduct the program at some three- to five-star hotels in Hanoi and expand the activities to other localities later,” Anh said.
Anh said the department would include the Global Partnership for Tourism Criteria (GSTC Partnership).
GSTC Partnership is the minimum standard that any tourism business should aspire to reach in order to protect and sustain the world’s natural and cultural resources while ensuring tourism meets its potential as a tool for poverty alleviation.
“We want to develop the system of environmentally friendly and sustainable hotels in line with the development trend of the hospitality sector to raise the competitiveness of hotels in Vietnam,” she said.
Anh said the department expected to award the tag to hotels that completed the pilot activity and expand the program to other hotels across the country by 2012.
“Hotels can join the pilot program if they want,” the deputy head said. “It’s not compulsory. But we will carry out more activities to promote hotels with the Sustainable Brand tag.”
She said the department would promote the awardees would have their names promoted on VNAT website and environmental protection websites.
Vietnam currently has 10,900 lodging facilities with 215,000 rooms, according to VNAT.
They include 184 three-star standard accommodations with 13,200 rooms, 95 facilities rated four stars with 11,630 rooms and 35 five-star accommodations with 8,800 rooms.
In related news, Hanoi is expected to have five new luxury hotels with more than 2,000 rooms this year to meet a possible surge in tourist arrivals to the capital city in 2010, the festive year when Hanoi celebrates its 1000th anniversary.
Four of the five new facilities are rated five stars, Vietnam News Agency reported.
Hanoi currently has 213 hotels with 9,968 rooms, 36 of which are three- to five- star facilities.
The year 2009 was a sluggish year for the city’s hospitality industry which registered a year-on-year decrease of 21.7 percent in the average occupancy rate to 55.41 percent.
Only more than half of Hanoi’s three- to five-star hotels were occupied last year, down 27.6 percent from 2008.
But local lodging businesses are hopeful for a rebound of bookings this year as Hanoi is planning to organize a series of festivals and cultural events to celebrate its 1000th anniversary and boost tourist arrivals to the northern hub.