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Turismo de Portugal conducted a survey on the environmental performance of tourist accommodations. There are concrete measures for saving water and energy, but there is still much more to do.
This is not a plus or minus study, because it is the first one done to evaluate the environmental performance of Tourist Facilities following this methodology. It is a study designed to situate and evaluate the environmental performance of Tourism Developments, especially in view of the goals established in the Tourism Strategy 2027.
This strategy aims to ensure that, by 2027, more than 90% of tourism businesses adopt energy and water efficiency measures and develop environmental waste management actions. The outlook is still far from what was expected, but some good news has already been released.
In 2022, 68% of the Tourist Facilities in Portugal have adopted measures for efficient water use, especially in terms of changing sheets at the guest’s request (95.5%) and the use of flush toilets with differentiated loads (82.8%). At the opposite end is still the low percentage of households that use rainwater, for example, for watering or washing (37.4%) or have installed timers on the taps (36.7%).
Still on the subject of water, it was concluded that the higher the number of stars, the higher the water efficiency of the lodgings, reaching 76% in the 5-star hotels.
In addition to water, energy efficiency was also evaluated. Of the total 1,353 units that submitted a response, 66% said they had good energy use practices, such as energy-saving light bulbs (97.5%) and customer-adjustable air conditioning (92.3%). However, and still in the same sector, only 28.8% have charging points for electric vehicles and 19.3% have installed solar panels for energy production.
Accommodations with fewer plastics but still few certifications
As far as disposable plastics are concerned, 63% of the tourist resorts will no longer provide this type of single-use material in 2022, especially plastic sheet and washcloth covers, coasters, and sanitary protection strips. Individual packages of butter and jam are the most difficult to dispose of with only 19% of the enterprises managing to do so.
Regarding waste management, 94.2% recycle, but only 33.7% make this available to guests.
In relation to certifications, 11% of the Tourist Facilities referred that they were certified with some type of standard, mainly quality management, at an international level, and accessibility, at a national level. Of these, 40% are certified under international standards
The autonomous regions of Madeira and the Azores recorded the best results in three areas: energy efficiency, waste management, and seals and awards.
The results are the result of surveys carried out to the Tourist Resorts between July and October 2022. A total of 2,184 units nationwide were contacted and 1,353 responses were submitted, which is equivalent to a 62% response rate.
Marta Cerqueira is from Minho and vegetarian. Luckily, she lives in Lisbon, where there is more tofu than curd. She has been a journalist for over 15 years, the last of which writing about food and sustainability. Now, out of the newsroom, she continues to write whenever she can, be it in magazines, journals, post it, or on her Instagram page, which she uses to share a life that is divided between being a mom-person-foodie-traveler. Still, she created Peggada so she could write about what doesn't fit in a magazine, journal, post it or Instagram: a better world.
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