The International Tourism Partnership (ITP) brings together the world’s leading international hotel companies to provide a voice for environmental and social responsibility in the industry. ITP works to demonstrate in a very practical way that environmental and social responsibility makes good business sense.
It does this by highlighting best practice, offering a range of practical products and programmes, and tackling emerging sustainability issues through its collaborative working groups. Over the past 20 years ITP has provided the tools, programmes and collaborative action required to help the industry demonstrate that a more sustainable and responsible future is obtainable through practical action.
There have been many achievements:
- Published in 1993 and now in its third printing, the Environmental Management for Hotels, a comprehensive guide to quality environmental management, remains one of the industry’s leading reference texts
- Since 1995, Green Hotelier Magazine (now online at www.greenhotelier.org) has been the leading voice regarding the sustainable and responsible agenda in the hospitality industry
- ITP now has 16 members with a collective reach of over 22,000 properties, more than 3.1m rooms and 1.5m employees in over 100 countries worldwide
- In 2005, ITP published the Sustainable Hotel Siting and Design Guidelines, on the back of industry demand
- In 2007 ITP launched its Going Green guide – a free and easy-to-follow resource for the wider hospitality industry
- In 2010 ITP launched its first working group on sustainable certification schemes. Since then ITP has led numerous working groups on issues such as human trafficking, and sustainability criteria within the request for proposal (RFP) process
- In 2011 the Hotel Carbon Management Initiative was launched in partnership with the World Travel and Tourism Council
ITP will continue to foster and implement new ideas that address the global issues facing the hospitality industry, and help the industry to become a truly positive force for sustainable development.
"We became a founding member of the International Tourism Partnership (ITP) more than fifteen years ago. During this time, we have seen the organisation evolve from an initiative focused on 'greening hotel operations' to one that is focused on global corporate social responsibility, helping to position our industry on the forefront of responsible business. ITP has achieved this with strong leadership and by remaining flexible to changing times.
"
Barbara Powell, Senior Director of Social Responsibility at Marriot