Greece has adopted Abta’s Travelife scheme as part of its new hotel star-rating system, according to www.travelweekly.co.uk.
Hotels certified by Travelife can improve their ranking in the points-based scheme and Greece’s new system was implemented this month, with hotel classification based on points for meeting technical, operational, quality and service criteria.
Travelife certification accounts for 150 points, with extra points given for matching Travelife Gold Award criteria – 100 for Travelife – recognised corporate social responsibility policies, the same for a recognized compliance system and 50 for an employee handbook.
December 2017 deadline
The system also includes mandatory training on environmental issues for personnel, which is among the Travelife Gold criteria and hotels have until December 2017 to comply.
Greece is the second country to so recognize Travelife, with Cyprus already incorporating the scheme into its hotel ratings.
Travelife audited 700 hotels in 38 countries against its Gold Award criteria in the 12 months to June, with most audits carried out between the months of June and September.
Green Capital of Europe 2016
The scheme has already partnered with Ljubljana in Slovenia to certify hotels in preparation for the city’s year as Green Capital of Europe 2016.
Ljubljana was awarded the World Travel & Tourism Council’s Tourism for Tomorrow Destination Award this year after hosting Abta’s 2014 Travel Convention.
The Travel Foundation and Travelife joined forces this year for the annual Make Holidays Greener campaign to focus on beach clean-ups, and, within a month of activity, 115 beaches were cleaned and almost 3,000 kg of rubbish removed.
