Gary headed to the Tui Blue Montafon to find out more about Tui’s sustainability roadmap (Credit: Tui)
While so much of travel’s sustainability mission is about the bigger picture, sometimes, it’s about the smaller details, like big tubs of Nutella and butter dispensers.
These are just some of the ways a Tui hotel in Austria has become a model for best practice for the 13,000 properties around the world the operator currently sells.
Tui Blue Montafon last month won the operator’s Carbon Reduction award for the most significant – although unspecified – reduction in emissions across its portfolio.
The Nutella was, of course, only a small part of the drive, with food and beverage regional manager Axel Herfurtner tasked with removing plastic from the buffet – including containers of the popular chocolate spread.
“We looked for a machine to make it, but you have to buy the nuts and they are expensive,” he said. “Now we buy a 10kg tub instead.”
Butter was another issue, but an ingenious machine now dispenses portions. Tablecloths are gone too, and have been replaced with compostable paper napkins.
These small details all count, like calculating the CO2 added to beer to give it fizz and then including it in offset totals. Sourcing food locally is another priority and, although some clients are initially sceptical, all the hotel’s wine is Austrian, reducing food mileage.