Ho Chi Minh City to pilot green hotel program

Around nine hotels of three to five stars in HCMC will start joining a pilot program on November 23 in which they will get a provisional sustainable development and environment tag from the hotel authority.

Nguyen Phuong Anh, head of the Hotel Department of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, told the Daily on Wednesday the participating hotels would have to meet more than 80 criteria on sustainable development and environment.

“The pilot program will help us improve the criteria,” Anh said. “We hope the official Green Lotus tag will be awarded in 2012.”

Some hotels of similar types in the capital city of Hanoi are also taking part in the trial program, which has been approved by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The hotel authority will extend the program to the central region upon completion in HCMC.

Anh said the department had included the Global Partnership for Sustainable Tourism Criteria into the criteria in an attempt to develop the country’s hotel system in line with the popular “go green” trend and improve its competitiveness.

“More and more tourists, especially Europeans, want to stay in green hotels. We need to adapt to the suitable development trend of the tourism sector,” she said.

She noted the program would be applying to three- to five-star hotels across the country first before it was expanded to other hotels, using suitable criteria.

Hotels that have already gained ISO14000 accreditation on environment management can still join the program. Anh said hotels should not expect specific support from the program but when participating, they would have the opportunity to promote their image worldwide through national tourism promotion activities.

The country has around 10,800 tourist accommodations, of which nearly 300 meet three-to five-star standards.