Singapore: Serviced apartment and hotel operator The Ascott Limited has signed a memorandum of understand with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council to provide international accreditation for hospitality leaders in Singapore.
The MOU signing took place at the ACE Learning Festival in Singapore. The Ascott Centre for Excellence (ACE) is the company’s global hospitality training centre.
Ascott’s partnership with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) is expected to facilitate over 700 training hours across new programmes in the last quarter of 2023.
ACE will serve as the operating partner of GSTC’s Sustainable Tourism Course (STC) as well as the Sustainable Hotel Course (SHC). The first in-person STC will launch in October this year, funded by Workforce Singapore’s Industry Catalyst Programme.
The SHC will be customised by ACE for hotel and accommodation professionals with an expected launch in November 2023.
The partnership aligns with Singapore’s roadmap for at least 60 per cent of all hotel room stock to achieve internationally-recognised sustainability certifications by 2025. It also supports Ascott’s goal of having 100 per cent of its managed properties GSTC-certified by 2028. Over 95 per cent of its accommodation units across Singapore are slated to be GSTC-certified by 2024.
Beh Siew Kim, chief financial and sustainability officer of lodging, CapitaLand Investment – owner of The Ascott Limited – said: “Within Singapore where the Ascott Centre for Excellence is established, we hope to play our part as an industry stakeholder, to propel local hospitality players towards achieving targets that support the Singapore Hotel Sustainability Roadmap.
“As a global hospitality company, Ascott is well-placed to contribute to capability-building in the industry through this collaboration. Our extended partnership with GSTC marks an important milestone for us in our sustainability journey. We are committed to help bridge some of the gaps and challenges that the industry is facing around sustainability by empowering future leaders with the right skills and capabilities in an evolving sustainability landscape in line with the GSTC framework.”
Randy Durband, CEO of GSTC, said: “Staff training is essential for operating a hotel more sustainably and for eventually seeking external review and a certification mark. We are impressed that Ascott is committed to continuous improvement in sustainable practices in all their properties and that they recognise the need to extend and facilitate this training for the broader industry. As such we’re pleased that they chose to base the training on the GSTC criteria as a pathway to holistic sustainability.”
