Florian Pronold opens international workshop
Florian Pronold, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Environment Ministry, opened a two-day international workshop on "Climate action and energy efficiency in hotels and hospitality in the Alpine region" today in Oberschleissheim (Munich district). The meeting’s purpose is to enable hotel, hospitality and catering associations, tourism and climate experts and interested hotel and restaurant operators from throughout the Alpine region to share experiences related to climate action and energy efficiency measures.
Florian Pronold explained: "Tourism is a significant economic factor in the Alps. Using efficient technology and building methods can lower operating costs and increase the quality of tourism activities on offer. Such measures can make small and medium-sized businesses more competitive on the market. Many energy efficiency investments pay off surprisingly quickly, but not many people know about them. Thus, this workshop is meant as a first step toward regular discussion and closer cooperation among hotel, hospitality and catering companies in the Alpine region."
Various initiatives, networks and other projects in the Alpine countries are implementing climate action and energy efficiency measures. The current workshop is taking place in the context of Germany’s presidency of the Alpine Convention. The Secretary-General of the Alpine Convention, Markus Reiter, also participated in the event.
In the framework of the project, an internet application is being developed for hotel and restaurant operators that will be available in the four languages of the Alpine countries. The app will inform users about various initiatives for climate action and increasing energy efficiency and about available technologies and funding programmes. The initial tools are being presented at the workshop and at the conference on sustainable Alpine tourism, which will be held in June of this year in Sonthofen.