Workshop on reducing plastic waste in TUI Hotels & Resorts

Reducing plastic waste has become a major issue around the world. TUI Group is contributing to the global fight against plastic waste, aiming to remove 250 million single-use plastic items across all businesses by 2020 and raise awareness for the topic in the tourism sector. In order to promote these goals and create fresh momentum, TUI’s first Plastic Reduction Workshop was held at TUI Magic Life Sarigerme in early October.

More than 30 participants from TUI Group’s different hotel brands and joint venture partners participated in the one-day workshop, including TUI Blue, TUI Magic Life, Robinson, TT Hotels, Suneo, Barut Hotels and TUI Sensatori. Its main focus was on embedding plastic reduction in TUI Group’s sustainability strategy and on defining specific goals and initiatives for TUI Hotels & Resorts. “The Plastic Reduction Workshop is a key element of our commitment to further raise awareness for the topic in our TUI hotels and present specific measures to reduce plastic. We are thus intensifying our commitment to deliver our goal in the framework of TUI Group’s sustainability strategy”, says Andreas Vermöhlen, Sustainability Manager TUI Group. 

The one-day workshop was implemented in collaboration with Travel without Plastic, an initiative promoting the reduction of single-use plastic items in hotels, and Cristal International Standard. Joanne Hendrickx, CEO and Founder of Travel without Plastic, is delighted about the cooperation with TUI Group: “Travel Without Plastic was delighted to collaborate with TUI Group to deliver the Let's Reduce Single Use workshop this week in Sarigerme, Turkey. It was extremely encouraging to learn about the initiatives that are already underway in many of the TUI hotels but also to see the enthusiasm from all delegates to accelerate the plastic reduction journey even further”. The workshop included interactive exercises, enabling the participants to discuss the challenges and approaches for solutions and present these solutions as well as best practices within the Group. 

TUI Group launched Group-wide processes to identify and reduce plastic waste as early as in 2018. The aim of the workshop was to provide further support for the hotels and raise their awareness for the topic. Further workshops are scheduled to be held in other destinations in 2020.