Sustainable Hotel Siting, Design and Construction

A rapidly growing travel industry, riding on the back of ever cheaper flights and increased spending power is producing a dilemma for hotel businesses - how to build more properties without causing damage to the environment? The publication of the world's first guiding principles for building tourist developments in a sustainable manner, co-sponsored by IBLF, will help to address this challenge.

Against a backdrop of predictions that the tourism industry will double in size over the next 15 years, Conservation International and the IBLF have published Sustainable Hotel Siting, Design and Construction - which will dramatically help hotel companies to build more sustainable and more environmentally friendly tourist developments.

Nine of the world's largest hotel companies - including Marriott, Hilton and Starwood - actively supported the development of the book and are now determining how best to implement the principles outlined in the publication.

'Sustainable tourism is about preserving popular destinations, the environment and its resources,' said Ed Fuller, president and managing director, International Lodging for Marriott International and chair of the International Tourism Partnership, the tourism programme of IBLF. 'We have got to get it right for this generation and beyond.'

There is an overwhelming case for hotels to be designed according to sustainable principles. As well as the need to preserve the environment and avoid wastage of resources, businesses are increasingly realising that a more sustainable approach means a longer-term business proposition.

Sustainable Hotel Siting, Design and Construction will be used at all levels of hotel development, from inception through to commissioning. It will be of use to local government planning authorities, investors, hotel companies, architects and construction companies to ensure that in the future, hotels can be built that fit in with the local environments and communities.

Sustainable development is a concept that for many is easily understood but difficult to put in practice. This publication will help the hotel industry do just that.