Cuba promotes sustainable management for tourist lodging.
An international course on the ISO 21401 standard on sustainability management for tourist lodging is being held at the Taganana Room of the National Hotel in Havana, another example of Cuba’s commitment to this transcendental topic.
With the participation of experts in the field, the workshops will be held until next Friday 17, in order to promote sustainable development in the strategic sector of the travel industry in Cuba, which is committed to the continuous improvement of environmental sustainability and social responsibility.
The ISO 21401 standard establishes the environmental, social and economic requirements for developing a sustainability management system for lodging establishments in the tourism sector, based on the best internationally accepted practices.
It covers issues such as employee health and safety, quality and customer satisfaction, water and energy consumption, waste generation and interaction with the local community.
ISO 21401 can be applied to any lodging establishment, regardless of its type, size or location; and, being a management system, it allows the establishment to set its own objectives in a flexible and progressive manner, several texts point out.
The main function of this standard is to provide companies with a strong commitment to caring for the environment and to make it easier for the management of organizations to operate in order to reduce the environmental impacts generated by their activities.
Tourism is known to be a great generator of income and jobs; it promotes knowledge of other cultures and preserves historical heritage. However, it can also generate negative impacts on the environment, such as habitat destruction or landscape deterioration, problems that are aggravated during the holiday season, when tourism consumption increases.
The most significant impacts can be stress of the living beings that inhabit this environment; damage to the seabed; loss of vegetation with the consequent soil erosion; garbage; animal damage.
To face these impacts, a good alternative is ISO14001, which would mean, according to several publications, the horizons of the organization; attracting environmentally conscious tourists; or reducing electricity or water costs.
Photos: Taken from Juan Carlos García Granda’s X account.
Written by Eva Luna Acosta Armiñán.
