19 Oct
2012

RIU Hotels & Resorts to adopt Travelife across its entire portfolio

Achieves First Travelife Gold Awards

Travelife is delighted to announce that RIU Hotels and Resorts has announced a commitment to audit its entire property portfolio against the Travelife Sustainability System by the end of 2014. 

The hotel group has already started phase one of the project with the first seven RIU Hotels & Resorts achieving Travelife Gold awards.  These hotels include: the Riu Calypso; the Riu Garoe; the Riu Belplaya; the Riu Monica and Riu Nautilus in Spain; as well as the Riu Tikida Dunas and the Riu Tikida Beach in Morocco.

Later this year, a further three RIU properties will be audited against the Travelife Sustainability System in Morocco, together with properties in Cape Verde and the Algarve. 

In the next phase during 2013/14, RIU Hotels and Resorts will work with its remaining properties worldwide, including those located in Bulgaria, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Madeira, Mexico, Morocco and Spain.

Nikki White, Head of Destinations and Sustainability at ABTA and Travelife said, “By committing to Travelife, RIU Hotels and Resorts is showing they are working hard to reduce their impact on the environment, as well as developing their staff, supporting local businesses and their local communities.  Holidaymakers staying in these properties can be sure that RIU Hotels and Resorts care about people and the planet, as well as offering their guests the very best holiday experience.”

The international RIU chain was founded by the RIU family in 1953 as a small holiday firm and is still owned by the family's third generation. The company specialises in sun and sand holiday resorts. RIU Hotels & Resorts has more than 100 hotels in 16 countries and 25,000 employees, which welcome over 3.2 million guests a year. RIU is currently the world's 30th ranked chain (according to HOTELS Magazine in 2011), one of the Caribbean's most popular and the fourth largest in Spain.

About Travelife Sustainability System for Hotels and Accommodations

Travelife is a certification system, dedicated to achieving sustainable practices within the tourism industry.  It aims to provide companies with realistic sustainability goals, tools and solutions to implement positive change within their businesses and supply chains. The system is managed by ABTA – The Travel Association in the UK.

Travelife primary focus is its Sustainability System for Hotels and Accommodations.  This is a certification system that helps hotels and accommodations manage and monitor their social and environmental impacts and communicate their achievements to customers.

The system provides an online sustainability checklist, based on European and International standards, to enable property managers to check their performance, gain advice and monitor progress. Once subscribed, properties undergo a third party audit to conduct a full environmental and social audit of their property and if they fulfil the criteria, properties may achieve Bronze, Silver or Gold awards, which can be displayed in brochures and on websites.

To date nearly 17,000 properties have registered with the Travelife Sustainability System for hotels and accommodations, 1,500 have completed a full third party audit and more than 500 properties have achieved a Travelife award. The System is the only certification scheme that works in partnership with some of the largest tour operators in the world as well as smaller independents, who all use Travelife to manage their contracted hotels and accommodations.

For more information about the Travelife Sustainability System please visit: www.travelife.org.