Making a Difference – Shore-Based Holidays
90% of our shore-based accommodation is based in small locally owned hotels, or small Neilson-managed hotels, in preference to the larger chains. In both our locally owned and our own-managed properties local people are employed and training and promotion opportunities are provided where appropriate.
By avoiding fully-inclusive board arrangements and by recommendations in our literature and in briefings, we encourage our guests to eat out where possible to enhance their holiday experience and boost the local economies. Where we manage accommodation units all food and drink is sourced locally where possible.
On our shore-based activities programmes we have been employing and training local people as assistant instructors with the long term goal of their achieving professional Royal Yachting Association Instructor Qualifications.
The majority of our activities programmes are based on wind, pedal or muscle power, providing enough energy to satisfy most thrill-seeking speed-freaks in the most environmentally benign way we know how. We can also cater for our more sedate guests, however! We no longer use anti-fouling on our day boats and where possible we use 4-stroke outboard engines on our powerboats to reduce noise, fuel consumption and emissions.
We have tasked our overseas staff to identify 3 long-term initiatives
that will bring positive benefits to the economies, communities and
environments in which they live and work. Here are some of the initiatives our staff have taken on.
Making a Difference – In Porto HeliThe
Porto Heli Team have come up with ten action points to further their commitment towards responsible travel. The team will help each other to achieve these aims which will hopefully promote our company within our local surroundings and make it a better place to work and live in.
1. Teach local school children to sail
2. Keep powerboat speed to a minimum
3. Try to speak more Greek
4. Teach English to locals
5. Remind ourselves of our social responsibility
6. Keep the beach clean
7. Take glasses to the bar
8. More hotel staff interaction
9. Keep the diesel pipe out of the water on the pontoon
10. Clean staff accommodation. (don’t leave it to the cleaners)
Making a Difference – In SivotaAs part of our responsible business policy, the team at the
Retreat Hotel have recognized that our tourism and hotel business has both a positive and negative impact on the local area and environment.
We are dedicated to ensure, as much as possible, that we continue to reduce the negative impact our business may have while maintaining and expanding any areas we can to improve the positive impacts for the region.
With this in mind, the following policies have been implemented at the Retreat Hotel:
1. Provide training and awareness programs for our staff on environmental issues.
2. Installation of energy efficient devices in rooms and around the hotel to help conserve energy.
3. We give preference to local suppliers for goods and services
4. Liase with local schools and provide support for projects
5. Give financial assistance to the local hospital for the purchase of new equipment
6. Use products for cleaning which are biodegradable
7. All waste water is treated in our onsite biological unit
8. Fully comply with all environmental laws, regulations and requirements related to our business.
9. We give preference to suppliers that offer products which have less impact on the environment
10. Monitor and review our environmental and responsible business policy regularly.
11. Encourage our guests to participate in our efforts to protect the environment.
Making a Difference – In LemnosFirstly from the beginning of season in
Lemnos we have sponsored 8 local children from the island aged between 5 and 8 who were very keen on progressing their sailing. These children receive free instruction each week and are working towards their level 1 RYA in sailing target end of their summer holidays.
Also during the fit out of the new centre all resources were purchased through local suppliers, giving a boost to the local community. These suppliers will continue to support the centre for spares etc.
We are currently, through our dive operation on Avalon's beach, running an underwater litter collection scheme that the guests can help participate in, helping to take waste plastic from the marine environment.
Making a Difference – In LesvosLocal Schoolchildren Initiative: Pre-season, all the pupils of local school in
Lesvos (teenagers) were invited to the hotel with their teachers. They were given an educational tour of the hotel, played tennis, and had a great buffet lunch. This was followed by a quiz, where they were tested in a numbers quiz about their time at the hotel (e.g. how many flowers have we planted in the last week, how many gears are on the mountain bikes, how many staff do we employ, etc). The two winners, a boy and a girl, won the prize of being able to come to the beach as often as they wish during the summer for watersports lessons. Both have since progressed very nicely and have achieved their RYA Level 1 and are now able to bring a friend each time to take them out sailing. This initiative was very well received indeed in the local community.
Riverbank Replanting Initiative: Pre-season, I met an ex-pat in the community of many years, Don Matthews. He was very interested to learn about our company and I explained to him our responsible tourism initiatives. Over successive meetings, I have committed to him that, when time allows, we will send a team of staff to assist in clearing/replanting the local riverbanks, whcih have suffered over the recent years as a result of rain shortfalls and poorly executed river management schemes.
Local Dog Refuge: We made a cash donation of €100 to the Local Dog Refuge, which takes care of the stray dog population and finds them new homes throughout Greece and the rest of Europe.
Use of Local Suppliers: Wherever possible, we are using local suppliers for our main food supplies. We have negotiated very good prices for local meats, which (considering the volume requirements of this hotel) has inevitably positively affected the local economy, including additional employment of staff at his operation. Additionally, we buy some of our fruits and vegetables locally, as well as cheeses and other food.
Making a Difference – In Finikounda1. During peak season in
Finikounda (as there is less chance of waves) we have been pulling the rescue boats up the beach rather than driving them back to the harbour. This reduces pollution and means that the staff are healthier as they then swim into work.
2. Responsible laying of buoys. Wherever possible before laying markers for teaching we check where the anchors/weights are landing and try to adjust courses so that they are laid in the sand rather than on the sea plants.
3. New for 2006 the Finikounda team have been recycling all the water bottles from guests to fill large windsurf sail bags which we then use as race markers and course bouys for the sailing activities. We also use sand filled water bottles as the weights rather than anchors which reduces the damage to the plantation on the seabed.
4. We also have a natural reef to the left of our main launching area which, due to the prevailing wind direction, has caused boats to drift on to the reef in the past causing it damage and upsetting its ecosystem. To prevent this we have installed a reef line running around the edge of it so that should boats drift towards it the boats will get caught in the line before making contact with the reef. The safety boats can then come in and tow the boats to a safe distance for them to continue sailing.
5. Not only on land but also in the boats, we have a policy of ‘seen some litter? then pick it up, and then all day long you’ll be able to go sailing in the knowledge that you helped the environment’. Snappy hey!
6. Disposal of contaminated fuel and waste oil. As in the environment we work in it is very easy to get fuel contaminated, we collect all of it in a container and then dispose of it at the local garage.
7. The introduction of a local flora and fauna ride. One evening a week we run a bike ride around the local groves and vineyards to educate guests as to the processes that these go through before they end up on their tables. A very popular ride which sometimes, due to popular demand we have to run twice in a week.
8. Recycling of paper. All printed paperwork, once its original use has past, is returned to the office to be vetted (for data protection) and then used for scrap either in the office or with the children’s clubs.
9. When we arrived in resort for the 2006 season we were concerned that some waste products may have been dumped by locals who do not realise the knock-on effect this can have on the river that runs along the side of the hotel. During the season we have been working with the hotelier and the local environmental agencies to have the river cleaned up and we now assist the authorities in testing the water with them in the right areas to make sure the river stays clean. The hotelier has also employed a night watch person to keep an eye out for people dumping waste off the bridge into the river.
10. Finikounda and the surrounding area have had a few problems with tar spillages coming off passing tankers. The Fini team checks the beach daily for washed up tar and do fortnightly checks of the surrounding beaches the tar is collected and taken to the local official land fill site. The local port police are also informed of any major spillages so they can check beaches out of our reach and try to track the source of the spillage.
Making a Difference – In VassilikiIn
Vassiliki we've got it
pegged!
People:• Show respect to local people when the language barrier causes problems
• Learn some Greek; put a Greek phrase on the Wednesday blackboard each week for both staff and guests to learn.
• Give old kit to local people instead of binning it
• Organise an open day for local kids to learn to windsurf (once UK have agreed non-guests can use kit) Sun in Aug.
• Invite local people to join in with our Sail 4 Cancer triathlon
Economy• Encourage staff and guests to use the small independent supermarkets as opposed to the larger conglomerates.
• Change punch and dips to a social supporting local restaurants
Green• Buy bins for the beach area so that less litter is found on the beach
• Ensure bike rides respect farmers’ fields and pathways
• Ask our partners to consider energy efficient light bulbs for as many rooms, public areas etc
• Turn the TV off rather than leave it on standby.
• Turn office laptop off, when not in use rather than leave on standby.
Making a Difference – In HalkidikiAs part of our responsible business policy, the team at the
Anastasia Hotel have chosen to adopt the following long term commitments on the activity side of our programme:
1. Getting involved in the Halkidiki Beach Clean scheme, a commitment to keeping the beaches of the area tidy and litter free culminating in a clean up the peninsular day in September.
2. Supporting local business as much as possible to ensure spending goes their way were possible.
3. Setting up a link with the local school, with a view to teaching watersports to children at certain times, which is in progress and will start as soon as the children are back at school.
Making a Difference – In Dahab1. All packaging from new equipment (which was lots!) was recycled at the local
Dahab recycling depot
2. Many of our guests and staff got involved in a clean up of the three pools dive site which is in the edge of the Namq National Park
3. We have five Egyptian staff who are all being trained to drive power boats and to instruct in either dinghy sailing or windsurfing.
4. We have run a few windsurfing lessons for some of the local kids which also provided some great teaching experience for our Egyptian staff.
August 2007