It is thanks to a program of certification of a seaside hotel in Hammamet that the idea of a report in the bowels of a hotel is imperative. Beyond the blue swimming pools, appetizing buffets and perfect rooms and air-conditionning, there is work, machinery, quality controls and colossal investments. A walk behind the scenes of the Hotel Ménara in Hammamet with the owner of the premises, Narjess Buasker, the quality manager of the structure, Teborski Mohamed, and Sandra Rochnowski, manager of the GreenSign German sustainability label. Report. By Amel DJAIT
In fact behind this well-tended lawn image, there is a work of every moment. Hotel Ménara is a family-run hotel, opened in 1995 and located in Hammamet. It has recently been certified Travelife and is preparing to become the first hotel in Tunisia certified by the GreenSign German label.
Travelife is a web-based certification system that enables hosting providers to monitor and self-assess their sustainability performance. The label reads: “Launched in 2007, the label is now recognized in the travel and tourism industry as one of the most complete and credible tools. The tourism industry in the networking of relations with tour operators, hotel groups, destinations and professional associations The label evolves as one of the guarantees to a fair pricing Travelife Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of ABTA, The professional associations of the United Kingdom and is supported by the major European professional associations and tour operators such as Thomas Cook, Tui and Kuoni.”
And it is precisely this Travelife certification that makes Sandra’s task of the German label, GreenSign, much easier. In fact, with its 168 criteria, the Travelife label can only bring up a hotel structure. And at the same time, the team of certification in progress and at work will check the kitchens, machineries, parts dedicated to staff and gardens in lightness.
On the kitchen side, it is the step forward: “The cold and the warm as well as the clean and the dirty must never cross in a kitchen”. In her first impression, Sandra Rochnowski considers that the numerous signs affixed here and there to the entrance of the cold rooms, poultry and fish stands, diving or shop are a sign of good internal communication and popularization of messages And essential instructions.
For Narjess Bouasker, the good health of a good hotel is not only the supply and management of stocks: “It is also and especially the waste. The Travelife label obliges us to weigh the purchase and the garbage. .. “. “It forces us not to have more than 10l / s of flow in the shower, 5l / s to the washbasin and not to exceed a precise quantity of water per m2 for this label for watering.,” Mohamed Teborski adds. ” The return on investment in terms of machineries is generally at the end of 7 years. The Hotel Ménara has switched to solar power in 2012.
This trade Narjess Bouasker learned it on the benches of the faculty and refines it with his father who founded the hotel. That said, she admits that she no longer knows where to give her head so much everything evolves quickly: techniques, labels, communication, human resources management, …. “I no longer have time to do my marketing and So decided to rely on a consulting firm especially for yeld management “. The young woman says that it is important to label her hotel: “A label, it is a guarantee of quality, a guarantee of international notoriety and above all it facilitates and helps to win the confidence of the Tour Operators. For the Menara, it cost us in the € 1600 without taking into account the costs of accompanying the installation of the system. It is an indispensable investment because between the trust of the Tour Operators, savings in the cost of energy and set up a system that facilitates the daily management with reliable indicators “
Sandra Rochnowski is delighted with what she sees.
She was last week in Djerba to inspect the Gardens of Toumana http://www.toumana.com/. From now on, its label not only certifies hotel structures but also guarantees the durability of destinations. It should be said that the going green or the green economy in tourism is becoming more and more important in the transport and accommodation through the other links of the tourist services chain.
GreenSign requirements comply with ISO and EMAS standards. They include all the criteria of the ISO standard and good practices of Corporate Social Responsibility established by the OECD, which includes working conditions, human rights, environment, biodiversity and Fair trade practices.
The distinctive feature of GreenSign is also its strong commitment to Marketing. The label has developed numerous tools that it puts at the service of its 100 hotels labeled on the German, Swiss, Austrian markets …
It is not because sustainability has the wind in its sails that Narjess Bouasker has embarked on this path. President of the Sustainability Commission of the Tunisian Federation of Hotels (FTH), the young woman is working on a certification project for the entire Hammamet destination. A project that she wants to initiate first on the medina and for which it involves civil society, local authorities … We will come back!
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