• New global initiative brings together TUI Care Foundation, UN Tourism and the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Resilience and Sustainable Development (CRSD)
• Two-year action-research project will strengthen local food economies, promote circular practices in the tourism sector and tackle food waste
• Key outputs include a 2040 Impact Roadmap and a pilot programme to test real-life solutions in Cape Verde

The announcement took place during a high-level event organised within the framework of the Tourism for Development Fund, a platform led by TUI Care Foundation with support from UN Tourism. The Tourism for Development Fund mobilises strategic partnerships and investments to unlock tourism’s potential as a driver of inclusive and sustainable development.

‘Food for Good’ brings together policymakers, academics, businesses, civil society and local communities to redesign how food is produced, sourced, served and reused in tourism destinations. It tackles development imperatives and the urgent humanitarian challenge of food insecurity by promoting policy change and solutions that minimise food loss and waste, enhance the redistribution of surpluses, and valorise by-products within circular value chains.

The initiative will develop the 2040 Impact Roadmap for Sustainable Food Systems in Tourism, a framework to identify leverage points for transformation. It builds on UN Tourism’s Global Roadmap for Food Waste Reduction in Tourism, developed with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and is made possible through the TUI Care Foundation’s global Field to Fork programme, which supports farming communities to transition to sustainable and regenerative practices which maintain biodiversity and produce local cultural delicacies. The TUI Field to Fork programme helps to create new income opportunities for farmers and local producers and enables them to build resilience and create short supply chains with the local tourism sector.

Governments, businesses and civil-society organisations are invited to partner in Tourism Food for Good to co-design the 2040 Impact Roadmap for Sustainable Food Systems in Tourism and host pilots at destination or business level. The first pilot is expected to take place in Cape Verde, a destination where the TUI Care Foundation is already present, not only with vocational education and marine protection programmes, but also with practical sustainable food solutions such as hydroponic technology, which is supported through multiple TUI Field to Fork projects in Cape Verde.