Accor and Dubai Sustainable Tourism joins forces launch ‘Dubai Can’

Accor, a world-leading augmented hospitality group with over 420 hotels across India, Middle East, Africa and Turkey, announces its commitment and partnership with Dubai Sustainable Tourism – DST, to improve the sustainability of the tourism sector, with the goal to achieve the long-term objective of a sustainable economy. 

Accor is joining the ‘Dubai Can’ sustainable initiative launched by the Crown Prince of Dubai, which encourages residents and visitors to “Refill for Life”. Indeed, this initiative aims to inspire and shift the lifestyle norms of all Dubai residents and visitors, support the vision of sustainable growth in Dubai and minimize the global environmental impact by reducing single-use plastic pollution. Accor will be sponsoring its first fountain in the city in the Dubai World Trade centre area, which will be providing access to free and safe drinking water. 

“We are proud and happy to join and support the Dubai Can initiative launched by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid, Crown Prince of Dubai”, said Mark Willis, CEO of Accor, India, Middle East, Africa & Turkey.  “As one of the leading hospitality groups in the region, we want to lead by example and show our hotels and colleagues in the industry that it has become essential to adopt sustainable practices, including the eradication of plastic in our hotels, to improve and meet the growing expectation of guests travelling to Dubai and staying in our hotels”. 

In 2020 Accor also announced its commitment to join the UN Global Tourism Plastics Initiative to remove all single-use plastic items in guest experiences from its hotels by the end of 2022. This action is aimed towards reducing environmental impacts and strengthening efforts to combat plastic pollution of the world’s oceans and other natural environments. It is a significant step forward for the global hospitality industry and for the group, which has been committed to sustainability for many years.  

Mark Willis adds: “We are already witnessing change across our hotels through the implementation of water filtration and in-house bottling technology, and we hope that the Dubai Can initiative combined with our efforts in our hotels will consolidate our efforts, while contributing to a more sustainable industry.”

Accor already counts two properties in Dubai that have eradicated plastic from their operation completely, through in-house water filtration systems, Sofitel The Obelisk Dubai and Swissotel Al Ghurair.

By the end of 2022 Accor aims to eliminate all single use plastic from guest facing areas and the properties in Dubai participating in the Dubai Can campaign will have shifted away from single use plastic bottled water.

Accor currently operate 59 properties (17,486 keys) in Dubai with a pipeline of 15 properties (3,803 keys).