Dubai Sustainable Tourism Awards will recognise Dubai’s most eco-friendly hotels

  DUBAI - The fifth edition of the Dubai Sustainable Tourism Awards was announced to recognise this year's most eco-friendly hotels and hoteliers in Dubai. Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) announced the awards at The Armani Hotel in Dubai recently. The awards is set to recognise hotels and individuals who are driving environmental awareness and adopting tangible measures to ensure enhanced sustainability within the tourism sector. Part of the Dubai Sustainable Tourism (DST) initiative, the DST awards will feature 20 awards, with 13 main awards targeted towards hospitality establishments and seven special awards that will recognise the efforts of the leaders and individuals who embody the sustainability principles of DST and have created remarkable changes within their organisations. The winners of the Dubai Sustainable Tourism Awards will be revealed at a ceremony in March. Along with a trophy, winners will enjoy a number of accolades and benefits; including media coverage; opportunity to join DST team in roadshows, be part of DST business cases. All winning hotels will have three personnel trained through Dubai College of Tourism to obtain the sustainability hospitality vocational training. Speaking at the announcement of the Dubai Sustainable Tourism Awards, Ahmad AlFalasi, Chief Executive Officer, Corporate Services and Investment, Dubai Tourism, said: “In line with the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai to position Dubai as a leading sustainable city, the Dubai Sustainable Tourism Awards has set the foundation for Dubai’s tourism industry to make a concerted effort to achieve better sustainability practices." "The awards also endeavour to recognise the hard work by our stakeholders, who have invested in sustainable practices, while encouraging and guiding other tourism businesses to follow suit to shape a more sustainable tourism sector. As we look ahead to further increases in visitor numbers in the lead up to 2020 and beyond, it is vital for us to help implement and encourage these measures for this industry to conserve resources and raise awareness of conservation practices,” AlFalasi said. To participate in the Dubai Sustainable Tourism Awards, hotels and desert camps must enrol through the DST website before the end of January, 2019. The 13 main awards will cover each tourism establishment classification type under hotels, resorts, apartments, guest houses and adventure camps. Meanwhile, the categories of the seven special awards have been announced as Sustainability Champion, Best Green Team, Conservation Champion, CSR Record Holder, Green Procurement Patron, Best Retrofit Implementation and Renewable Energy Leader. The main awards will be scored based on a revised set of strategic sustainability and operational criteria for each establishment. The scoring mechanism has also been streamlined for this edition, allowing establishments to now score even higher by implementing sustainability measures and demonstrating the improvement of their sustainability performance. The deadline for hotels to enter the Dubai Sustainable Tourism Awards is January, in the lead up to which DST will also launch a series of awards clinics to help support hotels with their applications. This will be followed by an evaluation process and approval by the final DST committee to select the winners. Adjudication of the awards will cover both strategic and operational initiatives, which will be benchmarked against standards set by highly qualified subject matter experts representing various entities. This process will be supervised by a respected jury panel of industry experts. Dubai Tourism’s commitment to supporting the United Nation’s announcement of 2017 being the ‘International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development’ was the theme of the 2017 awards, which received 151 entries from tourism and hotel establishments ranging from five-star hotels and resorts, to guest houses and desert camps across 10 main awards and seven special awards. Dubai Tourism is carrying out its sustainability initiative in collaboration with the following partners: Etihad ESCO, Dubai Carbon, Emirates Environmental Group, Emirates Wildlife Society – WWF and Emirates Green Building Council, as well as the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy, DEWA and Dubai Municipality as strategic partners. 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