PATA and The Travel Corporation to address food waste in tourism

The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) has announced a partnership with The Travel Corporation (TTC) to address food waste in tourism.

As an official sponsor of the BUFFET (Building an Understanding for Food Excess in Tourism) Initiative, TTC has made a commitment to help raise awareness of food waste in the travel and tourism industry and, along with PATA, challenges other industry stakeholders, particularly the hospitality sector, to reduce food waste to landfill.

“The Travel Corporation along with its not-for-profit organization The TreadRight Foundation have always been leaders in sustainable tourism principles and practices. It is a pleasure to be working with a highly successful international travel group and socially responsible organization to bring greater awareness to an issue that if unchecked, will only get worse with the significant growth expected in the tourism industry, especially in the Asia Pacific region,” said PATA CEO Dr. Mario Hardy.

“I look forward to working with The Travel Corporation’s Chief Executive, Brett Tollman, and his team and hope that our efforts encourage others to reduce their food waste to make a tangible impact in our industry and environment.”

“The tourism and hospitality sectors have to take immediate action to find solutions that can help reduce food waste, ensuring a direct impact to reducing carbon emissions. Climate change has greatly affected some tourism destinations, and it is imperative that everyone takes on a pro-active role to drive positive change and protect our planet for future generations,” said Brett Tollman, Chief Executive, The Travel Corporation.

“What better way to support such a meaningful initiative through the youth challenge where we will get to hear the ideas of how to reduce food wastage from youths from all around the region. It is so important that we give these youths a platform to share their ideas about environment issues, responsibility and action.”

TTC is a key sponsor for PATA’s “BUFFET for Youth” Challenge that will take place at the PATA Annual Summit 2019 in Cebu, Philippines from May 9-12, 2019.

As an official sponsor of the BUFFET Initiative, TTC will share best practice solutions that its various brands and partners have been implementing to reduce and prevent excess food waste in a PATA special report that will be published and distributed to the hotel and tourism industry.

As the issue of climate change continues to be a growing concern, food waste has come increasingly under attention in recent years and for good reason:

• Food waste is the third biggest contributor to climate change
• One-third of all foods produced in the world is wasted
• Additional pressures arise from GHG emissions caused by food production and transportation
• Right now, 842 million people do not have enough to eat and with an estimated world population of 9.8 billion people in 2050 resources will be limited and more people will be hungry

PATA continues to seek further engagement with hotels that would like to reduce their food waste to landfill, hotels already implementing food waste solutions, potential partners and sponsors, as well as those who would like to help us in raising awareness and building a better understanding of food excess in tourism.