TRAVELIFE has announced that from 2014, is changing to an updated and improved audit checklist. The new Travelife checklist embraces the advances made in sustainable tourism and reflects new requirements and good practice.

The new checklist is built on the broad themes of the old system, but is updated and more extensive in some areas. For example, there were two main sections in the previous checklist, (Environment and People), now the new checklist is broken down into six themes, presented in a logical and progessive order to make implementation easier. The new themes are:

Sustainability Management Systems
Policies, Legislation, Communicating Progress and Human & Financial Resources

Environmental Management
Energy, Water, Solid Waste, Pollution & Erosion, Hazardous Chemicals and Wildlife

Labour & Human Rights
How a property manages its employees, ensuring fair treatment

Community Integration
How a property works with its local community, ensuring they are consulted and treated fairly

Suppliers
How a property works with its suppliers, ensuring that they understand and support its sustainability objectives

Customers
How a property communicates with its guests, encouraging them to participate and support in its sustainability programme

The new system has an even bigger focus on helping hotels and accommodations to develop business management policies and procedures that will embed sustainability into their operations.

A further improvement is that we have developed a checklist specifically for smaller hotels which takes into consideration the ability of smaller businesses to meet the checklist requirements. The new checklist will be more relevant for different types of hotels.

As a result of the new criteria, Travelife for Hotels and Accommodations has increased its global status. It has now become one of only a few international certification schemes to be officially recognised by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (an international sustainable tourism accreditation body).

You can find more at www.travelife.org

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