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May 17, 2001 U.S.
Consul Announces HVS-Concept Hospitality Partnership Mumbai,
May 17, 2001 — In
a press conference held at the Orchid ECOTEL®,
Asia’s first ECOTEL®-Certified
hotel, U.S. Consul General David Good announced the partnership between HVS
International, the premier global hospitality consulting organization, and
Concept Hospitality, India’s premier hotel consulting and management group.
The alliance is expected to enhance the spread of the ecological movement in
India. “Today,
environmental issues are gaining more and more importance,” said Param
Kannampilly, Director of Concept Hospitality Ltd. “The environment is not an
issue that belongs to one particular country, but rather, to the whole world.” As
part of the announcement, both Kannampilly and HVS Eco Services Divisional
President Christopher Balfe formally signed a Memorandum of Understanding.
Under the terms of the agreement, and based on the experience the firm has
gained opening and operating the Orchid ECOTEL®
in Bombay, Concept will act as the local operations team charged with helping
Indian hotels implement the program necessary to qualify for ECOTEL®
Certification. In turn, HVS International will expand its ECOTEL®
marketing efforts in Asia in order to increase both participation in the program
among hoteliers and awareness of the program among travelers to the region. According
to Kannampilly, increasing the
number of ECOTEL®-Certified
hotels in India will greatly benefit the hotel industry by allowing hotels to
increase their profitability and earn goodwill in their surrounding communities. “The
challenge is finding new ways of
creating wealth with fewer resources, less raw materials, less energy, less
waste, and less pollution,” said Kannampilly. He noted that in fiscal year 2000, 10% of gross
operating profit at the ECOTEL Certified Orchid resulted from savings measures adopted for resource
conservation. According
to Suneel Parasnis, Western Region Director of the United States-Asia
Environmental Partnership (US-AEP), creating a format for environmentally
responsible projects for the hospitality industry in India will prove to be one
of the biggest milestones for US-AEP, a multi-agency organization launched by
former President George Bush in 1992 to facilitate the Green Revolution in Asia.
Parasnis believes that bringing the ECOTEL®
Certification to Asia will go a long way in promoting environmentalism in the
region. “In
the past, the problem has been that many hoteliers could not afford to bring
experts from the U.S. or pay fees in American dollars,” said Parasnis. “By
having the certification next door, many in the industry will now be able to
apply for it.” “Hotels
are generally known to be conspicuous consumers,” said Vithal Kamat, Managing
Director of The Orchid. “However,
the growth of ECOTEL®
hotels will reduce the burden on the environment by decreasing energy and
resource consumption, which, in turn, will lead to a boost in eco-tourism in
India.” The
ECOTEL®
Certification, managed by HVS Eco Services, is widely regarded as one of the
hospitality industry’s most challenging tests of environmental responsibility.
The criteria and the inspection system were designed by a team which included
experts from the world-renowned environmental think-tank, the Rocky Mountain
Institute, as well as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The ECOTEL®
criteria are updated every two years to keep current with evolving environmental
trends in hospitality; thus, hotels must be re-inspected once every two years to
retain their certified status. Furthermore, members must agree to unannounced
inspections anytime during their two-year membership period. HVS
International was created in 1980 to satisfy the growing demand for reliable and
well-documented hotel market studies and feasibility reports. With 12 offices
worldwide, HVS offers a vast range of services including valuations, strategic
analyses, development planning, litigation support, executive search, waste
management, gaming and restaurant consulting, asset management, operational and
management strategy development, and timeshare consulting services.
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