More than 20 leading hotels, groups and brands, including Hastings Hotels, The Merchant Hotel, Bullitt Hotel, Andras House Hotel Group, Titanic Hotel Belfast, AC Hotel Belfast, Clayton Hotel, The Maldron Belfast City Centre, The Fitzwilliam Hotel, Hilton Belfast, the Leonardo Hotel, Malmaison Hotel, The Harrison, Radisson Blu and Ramada by Wyndham have all secured a Green Tourism award in a drive to support Belfast’s sustainable tourism mission.
The Green Tourism Standard – one of the largest and most established sustainable certification programmes in the world – recognises an organisation that works responsibly, ethically and sustainably, contributes to their community, is reducing their impact on the environment and aims to be accessible and inclusive to all visitors and staff.
Now, 75 percent, or around 3,570 of all Belfast hotel bedrooms, are sustainability certified.
To mark the milestone achievement, Visit Belfast, the city’s dedicated destination marketing and management organisation, in partnership with Green Tourism and the Global Destination Management Movement (GDSM), has launched a sustainability whitepaper, acting as a blueprint to support the entire tourism industry’s efforts to tackle the climate change challenge, drive sustainability and embrace net zero.
Belfast has already made great strides in embracing sustainability and transiting to a zero carbon and circular tourism and hospitality sector. In 2022, it was ranked the Top 10 Most Sustainable Destinations in the World in the annual GDS Index – a world-leading sustainability benchmarking and performance improvement programme for destinations and their visitor economies. Climbing eleven places since 2021 to take the eighth spot, places Belfast as the most sustainable destination in the Island of Ireland.
Belfast City Council declared a climate change emergency in October 2019 and unveiled the city’s first Climate Plan in 2020 with Visit Belfast leading out on the ‘sustainable tourism’ transformation programme.
Councillor Róis-Máire Donnelly, Chair of Belfast City Council’s Climate and City Resilience Committee, said:
“We know there’s significant work ahead for us as a city to become truly sustainable but being rated in the Top 10 Global Destinations Sustainability Index is very encouraging – and that’s thanks to the efforts of Visit Belfast and our city’s tourism meetings industry.
Jac Callan Senior Manager, Sustainability & Impact at Visit Belfast, Scott Maclean, Managing Director at Green Tourism, Taroon Missry, General Manager of the Holiday Inn in Belfast city centre and representing the Andras House group of hotels, and Rachael McGuickin, Director of Business Development, Sustainability and Transformation at Visit Belfast.
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