Travelife for Hotels and Accommodations, is delighted to announce that the Side Star Park Hotel in Side, Antalya, Turkey has become its 1,000th hotelier member. The hotel joins an impressive range of properties across 45 countries that are already using the sustainability system to improve the way they manage their environmental and social impacts.

Travelife for Hotels and Accommodations has grown substantially over the last 12 months, more than doubling the number of hotels that are part of the initiative.   At the same time Travelife stays true to its founding vision and mission: to be a solution for hotels and accommodations who want to improve their sustainability performance.

Travelife remains the supply chain tool of choice for international tour operators such as Thomas Cook and TUI in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and other countries, who use Travelife for Hotels and Accommodations to manage the sustainability performance of their suppliers.  In fact many tour operators have now made Travelife membership a mandatory part of their supplier contracts.

Mr. Serkan R. ATEŞ, Hotel Manager of the Side Star Park said: “I am thrilled to hear that our hotel is Travelife’s 1,000th member.  We joined Travelife because we understand the importance of sustainability to all our customers, including the tour operators we contract with and especially our guests. I am looking forward to working with Travelife for Hotels and Accommodations to achieve an award so that we can really show our customers we are serious about sustainability.”

Nikki White, Head of Destinations and Sustainability said: “This is an important milestone for Travelife for Hotels and Accommodations.  We now have members all over the world, from popular European destinations like Spain and Turkey, to those further afield like the Caribbean, Brazil and Thailand. This marks an exciting achievement in Travelife’s development, particularly as consumer awareness of social and environmental issues is becoming increasingly mainstream. We look forward to a busy year, with more tour operators, hotels and accommodations using Travelife to manage and improve their sustainability performance.”

Garry Wilson, Managing Director, Mainstream Purchasing, TUI Travel PLC commented: “TUI Travel is proud to have supported ABTA throughout the development and implementation of Travelife.  With 1,000 hotels now subscribed to Travelife and working to improve their environmental and social impacts, Travelife has initiated sustainability change at scale. TUI brands around the world look forward to continuing to promote Travelife as it goes from strength to strength.”

Andrew Cooper, Director of Government and External Affairs, Thomas Cook Group PLC said:  “Thomas Cook is delighted that Travelife have reached the key milestone of 1,000 hotel members, and pleased that this is a hotel used by our German Neckermann customers. We recognise the importance of the Travelife Sustainability System in promoting good practices and behaviours on the part of hoteliers, and will continue to encourage our hotel partners to sign up to Travelife – a mark which is being increasingly recognised by our customers.”

ABTA also this month launched its new sustainability workshop for travel agents and tour operators. The training covers the key issues around sustainability, how the Travelife initiative works and outlines what role travel companies can play. To enquire about this training course please contact: sustainabletourism@abta.co.uk