Story by: Constantinos Alexandropoulos of Cyprus News Agency
The successful partnership in autumn and winter 2021 of ten tourist accommodation establishments from Cyprus, Greece and Malta with the partners of the project “Reducing the Consumption and Disposal of Single-use Plastics in the Tourism Industry in Cyprus, Greece and Malta”, also known as SUPMed, was announced by the Cyprus Hotels Association (PASYXE).
Τhe partners used the data available through the online Decision Support Tool (DST) for each hotel participating in the project’s pilot sample to develop specific action plans, which aimed to present possible scenarios on how each hotel can effectively replace and/or reduce the use of SUPs and then propose solutions based on what is feasible to do, taking into account all relevant parameters, a PASYXE press release says.
Each tailored action plan was presented to the hotels in May 2022 during on-site or online trainings by the relevant partners and proposed actions were agreed to be implemented during the 2022 summer season.
The implementation of the SUPMed project started in July 2020 and is expected to be completed in June 2023, with a total budget of €1,279,405.00, the press release adds.
The six project partners involved in the project are Aspon Consulting Ltd as the main partner (Cyprus), the Heraklion Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Greece), Anelixis Development Consultants SA (Greece), Cellock Ltd (Cyprus), AIS Environment (Malta) and the Cyprus Hotels Association.
It is also added that after the completion of the pilot implementation in each of the three action areas, best practice guides will be developed to present the findings of the pilots, the impacts of plastic waste on human health and the environment, how to reduce SUPs in tourism and other sectors, and what more environmentally friendly and affordable alternatives are available, which will be disseminated to SMEs, non-profit NGO’s, tourism establishments and other relevant stakeholders in the three regions and across Europe.
The 10 tourist accommodations participating in the project pilot sample by region are:
Cyprus: GrandResort, Atlantica Mare Village Ayia Napa, Radisson Blue Hotel, The Royal Apollonia
Greece-Crete: Elounda Palm Hotel & Suites, Infinity Blue Boutique Hotel & Spa, Paralos Lifestyle Beach
Malta: Hilton Malta, 1926 Hotel & Spa, Mellieha Holiday Centre
Finally, it is reported that the project’s first conference event in Malta will take place on 7 July 2022 at Salini Resort, Salina Bay, St Paul’s Bay, and online via Zoom, while the project is funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation.
