Marriott goes green

Ashbourne's Marriot Hotel has been acknowledged as a green accommodation provider on the Discover Ireland website. "This is a major boost to our members that the national tourism authority is acknowledging that that there is a consumer demand for this type of accommodation," said Maurice Bergin, Director, GHP. Green tourism is internationally recognised by a number of major accommodation booking engines such as expedia.com and Travelocity and promoted by top travel websites such as tripadvisor.com and Lonely Planet, showing a clear desire and growing demand for environmentally certified accommodation. The Green Hospitality programme is the only Irish hospitality environmental certification programme and is funded by the EPA through the National Waste Prevention programme. The environmental criteria behind the Green Hospitality certification are tough and only the best products and services which are kindest to the environment are entitled to it.