IHG Hotels & Resorts (IHG) and Unilever are collaborating to replace bathroom miniatures with bulk amenities in over 4,000 hotels globally.
As the first global hotel company to commit to all of its hotel brands removing bathroom miniatures in favour of larger-size amenities in 2019, the move is a key step in IHG’s pledge to eliminate single-use items throughout the guest stay by 2030, and part of its 10-year Journey to Tomorrow responsible business plan.
Unilever’s largest brand, Dove, will supply full-size hand wash, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, and body lotion to IHG Essentials and Suites Collection hotels, including Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, avid hotels, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites.
The roll out of full-size Unilever products across IHG’s mainstream brands, which accounts for around 80 per cent of IHG’s portfolio, follows the recent launch of larger-size bathroom amenities into InterContinental Hotels & Resorts properties.
Yasmin Diamond, executive vice president, global corporate affairs, IHG Hotels & Resorts, said: “IHG has pioneered the move to minimal waste in the hospitality industry and we’re excited to spell the end of bathroom miniatures through our collaboration with Unilever.
“Our guests are increasingly mindful of the impact their travel choices have on the environment and our colleagues, investors, owners and suppliers all expect us to act responsibly.
“We’ll continue to find innovative solutions for operating more sustainably to deliver our purpose of True Hospitality for Good.”
Umesh Shah, CEO Unilever International, added: “Unilever is committed to making sustainable living commonplace, and we have ambitious targets across every part of our business. Through this collaboration, IHG’s guests will enjoy a range of products from Dove during their stay, while reducing their use of plastic.”
The group is also working to eliminate single-use items, minimise food waste and adopt circular solutions for major hotel commodity items by 2030.
The Japanese government will extend and expand a domestic travel subsidy programme next month as part of plans to give tourism and hospitality providers a much-needed boost.
Named Kenminwari, meaning discount for prefecture residents, the programme covers travel only within individual prefectures or regions, and is due to conclude at the end of June. Now, it is being revamped to operate across all 47 prefectures from early July through the end of August, except during the three-day Bon festival in mid-August.
The new scheme is designed to replace Go To Travel, a nationwide travel subsidy campaign that ran from July 2020 to December 2020 before being cancelled due to an uptick in Covid-19 infections.
The revamped nationwide Kenminwari will grant participants subsidies of up to 50 per cent of their accommodation cost or as much as 8,000 yen (US$59) per person per overnight stay for both accommodation and transportation, as well as up to 2,000 yen in coupons for dining and shopping.
Through the programme, tourism minister Tetsuo Saito said the government hopes “to promote trips to places that are further away”.
Indeed, the revised programme will allow travellers from Tokyo, Osaka and other large cities to visit anywhere in Japan of their choosing – a significant condition for domestic tourism recovery given their large population. During the 2020 launch of Go To Travel in Tokyo, then-chief cabinet secretary Katsunobu Kato had said travel from Tokyo to other parts of Japan accounted for 20 per cent of the country’s travel market.
Of the unused 830 billion yen previously granted to the Go To Travel campaign, the government plans to allocate 560 billion yen to the expanded Kenminwari programme.
To avoid a surge of Covid-19 infections, participants in Kenminwari must be triple-vaccinated or show proof of a negative Covid-19 test. Prefectures will also be able to suspend the programme should their rate of infection rise significantly.