Dubai Tourism extends deadline for hotels to comply with sustainability measures

Hotels in Dubai have been offered a 12-month extension to ensure they comply with new sustainability requirements, Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism) has announced.

The deadline for the implementation of the 19 sustainability requirements and carbon calculator submissions has been pushed back to July 1, 2021, to support the regional hospitality sector amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, a statement said.

The new measures, announced last year, are aimed at supporting the emirate’s hotels in their compliance with Dubai Tourism’s hotel classification system, with the long-term objective of advancing sustainability performance across the sector.

Read: Hotels in Dubai given 18 months to meet new sustainability requirements

“In light of the current situation surrounding the global Covid-19 pandemic, hotels will benefit from an additional 12 month implementation period to finalise their sustainability compliance, a decision that has has been announced by Dubai Tourism to strengthen the foundations for recovery of the hospitality sector,” the statement said.

The 19 sustainability requirements include sustainable management approaches, performance metrics, energy, food and water management plans, guest education, employee training initiatives, the presence of sustainability committees within hotel establishments and corporate social responsibility programmes for local communities.

The carbon calculator – part of the Tourism Dirham platform – has been measuring the carbon footprint within Dubai’s hospitality sector since January 2017.

On a monthly basis, hotels submit their consumption of 11 carbon emission sources, including electricity, district cooling, water, waste, fuel for transportation, fuel for generators, fire extinguishers, and liquefied petroleum gas for analysis.

This information is aggregated and analysed to provide industry insights on the sector’s collective carbon footprint.

In addition, by formulating a baseline along with consistent tracking, the platform enables hotels to understand their energy, water and waste consumption and identify successful cost-saving opportunities.