EU Eco-label for tourist accommodation services BIT Milan, February 12-15, 2005 Report March, 2005 Dagmar Diwok, ACTA Ernst Leitner, G&L On behalf of the European Commission ENERGON - 1 -
Tasks and goals Within the project Development and implementation of a marketing and communication strategy for the European Eco-label on countries with eco-labelled hotels (EU Eco-label and national labels) the contractors were present at BIT in Milan. BIT is the most important tourist fair in Southern Europe. It addresses to trade (hotels and hotel groups, accommodations, tourist organisations, associations, tour operators, travel agencies, organisers, tourist magazines) and private visitors. The presentation of the European Eco-label on tourist accommodation services had following tasks: Active presentation to relevant stakeholders in tourism (tourist regions, hotel groups, journalists etc.) Raise the level of recognition among decision makers in tourism Find interested tourist businesses to apply for the European Eco-label Meet relevant tour operators to position this environmental award and achieve support As target area we focused on following Italian provinces: Lombardia - 2 -
Result 1. Participation at the Lombardia-stand The region of Lombardia invited ACTA to participate at their stand. Therefore info-material about the EU Eco-label were available at BIT all the days. On the 14 th of February, Mrs. Dagmar Diwok was present the whole day. Activities Duration Marketing Team Info-seminar, 14/2/2005 Half day Mrs. Dagmar Diwok Acquisition contacts 13-14/2/2005 Half day Mrs. Dagmar Diwok 2. Consumable materials We distributed following materials: approx. 150 folder Towards an environmentally sound future in Italian language approx. fact sheet Eco-label tourism in Italian language press information for journalists 3. Advertising effects Dates Personal contacts Visitors (at stand, at presentation) Info-Seminar 14/2 Approx. 25 participants Other days 13/2 Approx. 10,000 visitors visited the stand of Lombardia (whole fair) - 3 -
4. Info-Seminar organized in occasion of the BIT fair in Milan, 14 February 2005 The direction Qualità dell Ambiente (Quality of Environment) of the government of the region Lombardia had agreed to host a short seminar regarding the European Eco-Label and the development in Italy, and specifically Lombardia, of its introduction. After some research, the speakers invited have been Prof. Quaglino from the Turin Politechnic University and Mr. Novembre from IREALP, an institution affiliated to the Lombardia government, who are currently finishing a certification process for 10 hotels in northern Lombardia. The region Lombardia agreed to offer the space for the seminar, support for mailing and PR and cover the expenses of the speakers. Information regarding the event was inserted into the official brochure of the region for the fair and the fair website. A short description of the event and an invitation has been sent to the following destinataries: 1. Mailing list of the Region Lombardia (Associations, Jounalists, Tourism) 2. ACTA Database (Hotels, Stakeholders, Journalists, Associations) 3. ACTA Mailing List on sustainable tourism (http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/turismo_sostenibile/ ) which has currently 194 subscribers 4. EXPO cts (Fair) Mailing List (Journalists, Hoteliers) The seminar started at 17.30 and lasted until 19.00 o clock. The location was a public platform in the centre of the stand of the region Lombardia with multimedia facilities. There were ca. 60 seats, most of them occupied, and a continuous crowd of 20-30 visitors from nearby stands. Due to the open character of the event, no registration of the participants has been done, but documentation has been distributed among the visitors. The seminar was introduced by Mrs. Anelise Ricci, responsible of the direction Quality of the Environment of the Region. She shortly described the efforts of her direction towards a more intensive practice of environmental certification of businesses, services and destinations, and underlined the positive collaboration with ACTA in several projects on sustainable managements of protected areas and Local Agenda 21. Dagmar Diwok then presented the European Eco-Label for tourist accommodation service, describing its characteristics, the latest developments all over Europe and the necessities for those who want to adopt it. The second part of the seminar was dedicated to the presentation of the project European Ecolabel in Valtellina carried on by the University of Turin and IREALP, who described the process of application those hotels had been confronted with. At the end, the seminar was opened to a discussion round with the public, questions were answered and several future meetings and seminars agreed upon. The seminar ended with a short cocktail offered by the Region. - 4 -
5. Acquisition One of the major objectives was to look for potential companies to apply for the EU Eco- Label. Another aspect was to discuss with representatives of certified hotels about their experiences and impressions about the EU Eco-label for tourist accommodation services. Our strategy was as follows: Identify potential regions and hotel groups with a context to nature and environment Find partners for the promotion of the EU Eco-Label (e.g. tourist provinces and tour operators) Find potential companies to apply for the EU Eco-label (hotels, hotel chains) Result in brief: About 20 hotels were interested in the EU Eco-label, we provided them detailed information, two hotels sent a reply for further contact. The topics of the meetings were costs, application procedure, criteria, We had one major contact to tour operators: Centro Turistico Studentesco All the important contacts will be followed up from the EU Eco-label marketing team! The acquisition team: Mrs. Dagmar Diwok, 13-14/2/2005 6. Press relations We had talks to approx. 20 journalists in tourism. Unfortunately sustainable tourism and environmental issues are actually not important topics. Just one magazine promised to release an article (but not yet published). 7. Contacts The eco-label marketing team was very busy to meet as many relevant decision-makers in tourism as possible. The objective was primarily: Present the EU Eco-label (raise the level of recognition at stakeholders) Find partners for the promotion of the EU Eco-Label (e.g. tourist provinces) Find commitments with tour operators Find potential companies to apply for the EU Eco-label (hotels, hotel chains) - 5 -
In total we had 41 meetings with relevant persons (the talks took approx. 15 min to one hour each). Hotels, hotel chains: 20 Tour operators: 1 Journalists: 20 The team at ITB: Dagmar Diwok Milan, 25 March 2005-6 -
8. Photogallery Introduction View of the multimedia platform Dagmar Diwok speaking The EU Eco-label quiz-wheel at the stand During the seminar Mr. Novembre answering questions - 7 -