A Lodge With A Living ‘Turf’ Roof, Fairground Rides Fuelled By Cooking Oil, Free Bikes For Hotel Guests, And A Shopping Centre’s ‘Environmental Dude’
Meet England’s Sustainable Tourism Champions
Nine regional ‘champions’ who competed for the Sustainable Tourism Award at the recent Enjoy England Awards for Excellence have been recognised in a new publication by VisitEngland.
‘9 Reasons to be Green’ celebrates the best of sustainable tourism practice in England highlighting the extra lengths that some of the country’s tourism operators go to in order to ensure maximum carbon savings and showing that it makes good business sense.
Overall winner of the category, South West’s, The Venus Company, works tirelessly at raising money to run education programmes about beach conservation. North East’s, The Hytte Lodge, has a living roof made out of local turf to better fit in with its surroundings. Fairground rides at Old MacDonald’s Farm in East of England are powered by either electric power, or cooking oil. Free bikes are offered to guests at Palace Hotel in the North West; and at Festival Place Shopping Centre in the South East, a character called ‘Environmental Dude’ puts an entertaining spin on recycling.
‘The publication is designed to inspire more tourism businesses to take up the sustainability challenge,’ said Jason Freezer, VisitEngland’s Sustainability Project Manager.
‘Whether businesses are starting out or expanding, we hope that England’s Sustainable Tourism Champions will inspire others along the road to sustainability. These operators prove that sustainable management can make a positive difference to a business environmentally, socially, and economically.’
The brochure is available online and in limited hard copy. Copies can be downloaded at VisitEngland’s dedicated sustainability micro site www.visitengland.com/green.
The Sustainable Tourism Champions featured in the publication are:
• The Hytte, Bingfield, Hexham
• The Palace Hotel, Manchester
• Poston Mill, Peterchurch, Hereford
• The Deep, Hull, East Yorkshire
• Doddington hall & gardens, Doddington, Lincolnshire
• Old MacDonald’s Farm, Brentwood, Essex
• The Venus Company, various locations in Devon and Cornwall
• EC&O Venues, London
• Festival place shopping centre, Basingstoke
The launch of this publication is a continuation of activity commenced under VisitBritain to mainstream sustainability into the English tourism industry. VisitEngland, launched officially on April 1st 2009, will now continue this work.
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Media Contact: Zoë Shurgold 020 8563 3220 or zoe.shurgold@visitengland.org
VisitEngland is the strategic leadership body representing the public and private sector stakeholders of English Tourism. It works in partnership with VisitBritain, the RDAs and local authorities, and the private sector, creating a national tourism strategy, optimising marketing investment, and developing the visitor experience across England. VisitEngland uses Enjoy England as its consumer-facing brand in the domestic market and the VisitEngland brand in international markets. More information can be found on www.visitengland.com and www.enjoyengland.com
