Hotelplan Group is stepping up its own sustainability activities in key tourism destinations. The Swiss travel group is lending a total of up to ten million Swiss francs for a wide array of projects. The first sustainability projects are already being implemented in Turkey.

Since the start of this year, Hotelplan Group has been assisting two hotels in Turkey to implement solar power systems for generating sustainable electricity. At the same time, the Swiss travel group is committed to ensuring that Turkey meets the required sustainability measures to be certified as a sustainable tourism destination. This is part of Hotelplan Group’s sustainability strategy, in which the Swiss travel group puts equal emphasis on environmental, economic and social aspects.

Loans for financing sustainability projects
In the future, the two hotels in Side intend to produce the bulk of the electricity they need in a climate-friendly way. Partially financed by Hotelplan Group, they are therefore building solar plants in the Turkish hinterland. A new initiative by Hotelplan Group helps partner companies in tourism, such as hoteliers or destination agencies, to finance sustainability projects. Certain criteria must be satisfied in order to receive a subsidy, such as promoting the sustainable development of the tourism value chain and the measurability of progress in terms of sustainability. Hotelplan Group is allocating a total of up to ten million Swiss francs for this to pave the way for larger investments. For example, this could be for deploying renewable energies or for developing an optimised water management system. “These loans empower our top performers as a reliable partner to quickly seize opportunities. At the same time, we are redesigning our value chain to be more sustainable. We look forward to welcoming further applications from our partner companies to help support their sustainable projects. We can achieve a lot together”, explains Laura Meyer, CEO Hotelplan Group.

Preparing partner hotels for certification
In addition to financial support for a wide variety of sustainability projects, Hotelplan Group also fosters the sustainability of partner companies through training programs. The first training of this kind was already held in Turkey. In 2022, the Turkish government reached an agreement with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC): all hotels must comply with a wide range of sustainability criteria and achieve certification by 2030 at the latest. To support this goal, Hotelplan Group and Futouris have trained approximately 150 quality and sustainability officers in the most important partner hotels in Belek and Side on the topic of sustainability. The objective is to enable participants to implement measures for sustainable nutrition and reducing plastic waste in their own businesses thanks to best-practice examples and specific instructions. In the future, they will be backed up by sustainability champions who will actively assist in the implementation as an interface between the Hotelplan Group and the hotel companies.

Sustainability is an integral part of the strategy
These new initiatives represent a major step forward in implementing Hotelplan Group’s sustainability strategy, which is a key component of the Group's strategy. As a travel group that includes brands, such as Hotelplan, travelhouse, tourisme pour tous, Migros Ferien, vtours, Interhome Group, Inghams, Explore and the two business travel providers Finass Reisen and bta first travel, Hotelplan Group is committed to pursuing a comprehensive sustainability strategy focused on One Planet, People & Places and Responsible Business. Specific measures are implemented within the framework of Responsible Business in order to act in a sustainable manner at all levels of the company and actively involve employees. Under the motto One Planet, Hotelplan Group is proactively committed to promoting climate protection and the preservation of biodiversity. People & Places concentrates on working with partner companies, supporting destinations and ultimately, offering customers sustainable alternatives and keeping them informed about these opportunities. “We are always exploring new avenues and testing different options on how we can contribute to making tourism more sustainable. We are convinced that the loans as well as the training courses in the tourism destinations not only have a short-term effect, but a long-term and consequently sustainable effect”, says Laura Meyer.