Highlighting Environmental Protection

Saigontourist Holding Company, established in 1975, is currently the biggest travel company in Vietnam leading in environmental protection projects.

Over the past years, Saigontourist has continually improved product quality, developed green tourism, satisfied the many demands of its clients and contributed to environ­mental protection.

"We bear in mind that having a good impact on the environment will create sustainable development and enhance the image of a company, which is one of the marketing methods to attract more clients. Saving en­ergy and managing resourc­es efficiently contribute to environmental protection and sustainable develop­ment, and are regarded as business principles. These factors are part of the cul­ture of Saigontourist," said Nguyen Huu Tho, general di­rector of Saigontourist.

Saigontourist is the first company in Vietnam's hos­pitality industry to have applied environmental management following the international ISO 14001 standard, aiming to develop green tourism and sustain­able tourism.

Since 1998, Majestic Ho­tel, under the management of Saigontourist, has introduced a series of efficiency improvement programs with technical support from Dr. E. Mohanty with the en­vironment and energy-sav­ing agency under the French Ministry of Environment and Regional Planning. In 2003, with the support and con­sultancy from national and international organizations, 15 hotels and resorts under Saigontourist participated in the Asia-Invest project themed "Plan to implement environmental management in Vietnam's hotels and re­sorts."

In 2004, IS hotels and re­sorts under Saigon tourist, namely Rex Hotel, Majestic Hotel, Continental Hotel, Grand Hotel, Palace Hotel, Kim Do Hotel, Oscar Hotel, Bong Sen I Hotel, Que Huong Liberty 4 Hotel, Metropole Hotel, Thien Hong Hotel, Dong Khanh Hotel, De Nhat (First) Hotel, Binh Quoi 1 Tourist Village and Can Gio Resort, received ISO 14001 certificates from AFAQ AF­NOR International. The en­vironmental management system with ISO 14001:2004 standard was extended, de­veloped and built at different units, including Saigon-Phu Quoc Resort in Kien Giang Province, Saigon-Morin Hotel in Hue. In 2006, Saigontour­ist Green Club was estab­lished.

Environmental protection methods have been applied by Saigon tourist, including management methods for energy, water, wastewater, chemicals, internal and external communications, fire regulations and organiza­tion of training and evaluating environmental manage­ment systems.

Through the application of these methods, the improve­ment of energy efficiency and utilization of power, wa­ter and materials was fully effective, which both saved expenses and guaranteed the product quality. In addi­tion, waste was reduced, creating a greener and cleaner environment.

As of October this year, Saigontourist had 16 af­filiates (13 hotels and three resorts) building and im­proving the ISO 14001 envi­ronmental management sys­tem. Over 15,000 staff from Saigontourist were trained and instructed in methods of implementing environ­mental management.

The average power con­sumption per guest de­creased from 10-20% as a re­sult of replacing light bulbs with power-saving light bulbs, using solar energy and exploiting daylight. Wa­ter consumption per guest also went down remarkably, about 21%, due to strength­ening regular checks and applying methods of saving and substitutes.

Thanks to conscientious application of environmental management methods, from 2004 to 2008 the total pow­er consumption saved by the 15 affiliates of Saigontourist was 5,516,809 kWh, equiva­lent to VND 7.7 billion.

The successful implemen­tation of environmental work also helped the units develop the trust of clients and gain notable achievements. Majestic Hotel received the Asian Energy Award in 2002 and ASEAN Energy Efficient Building Award in 2008. ISO Gold Cup prizes were award­ed to Rex Hotel in 2006 and Majestic Hotel in 2006 and 2007, and the Energy-Saving Building Award was given to Continental Hotel.

The dedicated efforts in environmental work that Saigontourist applied over the past few years, together with the international ISO 14001 environmental management system that was maintained in tourism envi­ronment, hotels and tourist areas under Saigontourist, have contributed to creat­ing a healthier environment and building the trademark of Vietnam's hospitality in­dustry.