Green Tourism, the world’s largest sustainable certification programme of its kind, and the Hospitality Industry Trust (HIT) Scotland have collaborated to provide the hospitality industry with sustainable training.
The Green Tourism Scholarship, launched this month by HIT Scotland, the not-for-profit organisation working to improve hospitality standards through scholarship and bursary programmes, is aimed at hospitality professionals with a keen interest in business sustainability who are in a position to implement a green tourism strategy for their business.
The scholarship comes at a time when the impact of practicing sustainable initiatives is being proven to generate greater economic benefits for a hospitality business, local communities and provides a more enjoyable experience for tourists by creating meaningful connections with local people.
It will offer scholars the chance to see first hand the positive results a sustainable approach can have on hospitality and tourism businesses around the UK, and internationally looking at global sustainability, learning from industry professional with a passion for incorporating local, green and environmental considerations into the industry.
As a recent Green Tourism & HIT Scotland scholar who visited five English Lakes Hotel to learn more about green practices, Marina Panizzo, Resort Sales Executive for Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, explained what benefits she has taken from her experience: “Having the opportunity to see different properties, businesses and ways of managing made me realise that there is no one way to be green, even with external limitations such as working in a listed building or being limited by the surroundings, you have the chance to improve sustainability, help the community and reduce costs in a wide variety of ways.
“I think the whole experience was very positive for my current and future roles in hospitality and also as an individual.”
The partnership between the two not-for-profit organisations is an exciting move for the hospitality industry as Andrea Nicholas, Green Tourism Managing Director, explains: “With increasing numbers of tourists considering sustainability when travelling it has never been more important for a hospitality business to adopt green practices.
“Working with a number of our top members who demonstrate excellence in sustainability, the chosen scholars will gain a wealth of experience and insight from their visit and we hope this will be reflected in the state of sustainability across the hospitality industry.”
Speaking about the HIT scholarship programme, Chief Executive, David Cochrane said: “HIT strives to make Scotland the best hospitality industry in the world and we know this can be achieved through our once in a lifetime training opportunities and experiences that provide scholars with the opportunity to learn locally, nationally and internationally.
“We are constantly growing and improving our scholarship offering so teaming up with Green Tourism to provide a new scholarship on such a valuable hospitality business topic was a natural step for us.”
To find out more about Green Tourism visit www.green-tourism.com