On 29 March 2012, the seminar on potentials and solutions to use energy and water resources efficiently in the hospitality industry was held by the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism in coordination with MEET - BIS Vietnam and Switch – Asia program of European Commission at the Ocean Park building, Hanoi.
Water is an extremely precious resource since it sustains life of human and all of creatures on the Earth. But fresh water is only about 3%, the remaining of over 90% of water on the Earth is sea water.
Dr. Dao Trong Tu, representative of Vietnam at the Board of Cooperation Networks for Global Water in South East Asia, has pointed out the major challenges for water resources in Vietnam such as: our water resource heavily depends on water resources of neighboring countries; the massive development of hydropower projects on all of river systems impacted badly on the environment and human life; the degradation and exhaustion of water resources due to unsustainable development, urbanization, population growth; poor management capability; awareness of community; climate change … These created a large pressure to the maintenance of natural water resource. He said that, if we do not change the look on this resource right now, society will soon face the "water resource crisis" and "water war" will take place.
Tourism accommodation facilities in Vietnam are mostly of small and medium scale, professionalism in tourism service is low, awareness of environment protection is not high, human resource is weak and inadequate, the consuming of resource is not effective … which lower Vietnam tourism competitiveness.
Sustainable tourism development should go in parallel with environment protection. If hotels want sustainable development and high competitiveness in the market, designing of a green hotel is needed, because nowadays tourists tend to consume environmentally friendly, healthy, safe products and responsible tourism.
There are many methods to operate a hotel in an environmental manner. Energy in rooms, restaurants, conference rooms, function rooms, bar, kitchen, laundry ... can be saved by using natural lights, solar energy lights, solar cells, solar water heater, inverter, heat pump …
In this seminar, Ms. Nguyen Thanh Binh, Manager of Service Quality Control Division (under the Hotel Department – VNAT) also showed significance and urgency of applying Green Lotus Label standard in the hotel. It is the responsibility for the environment and the sustainable development of Vietnam tourism aiming at improving the competitiveness of tourist accommodation system in Vietnam, promoting integration, enhancing standardization …
The construction of accommodation facilities and services provision of hotels bring about a large amount of waste, exhaust, waste water, noise … In Vietnam, the interest in environment protection is limited due to some reasons: the sizes of hotels are mostly small and medium, so they only focus on economic profit; limitation of awareness and knowledge of staff and managers and no specific penalties for violations. The seminar was a chance to open a new vision for the hotel managers on green, economic and high competitive hotel model in the integration period.
Translated by Thu Giang (TITC)
