Bangkok — Red Planet Hotels recently hosted a beach clean-up event in Chonburi ahead of the World Cleanup Day, a worldwide civic movement dedicated to collecting waste from beaches, rivers, forests, and streets. As part of its ongoing green initiatives, the beach clean-up affirms Red Planet’s relentless commitment to sustainable tourism.
Fourth of its kind for Red Planet Hotels, the beach clean-up attracted more than 100 volunteers to the popular, palm-lined Jomtien Beach three kilometres south of Pattaya City.
“We focus on driving change across the hospitality industry,” said Poonnapha Tritanachart, Red Planet Thailand’s director of operations. “Through our beach clean-up events, in addition to mangrove planting and coral reef restoration efforts earlier this year, we are contributing to the raising of environmental awareness, whilst building support for local communities. This is what a whole generation of young and environmentally conscious travellers is demanding.”
As widely reported this year, National Geographic estimates that more than five trillion pieces of plastic waste are already floating in the world’s oceans, and an additional nine million tonnes are discharged into waterways every year.
“We understand the scale and urgent action required to combat plastic pollution. Red Planet Hotels is constantly adopting sustainable practices in order to become a part of the solution within the budget hotel sector,” said Tim Hansing, Red Planet’s CEO. “We also hope that others in the hospitality sector will be encouraged to embrace eco-friendly tourism practices, leading to concerted efforts in the travel industry to adopt environmental programmes and initiatives.”
Since 2018, more than 500 volunteers have joined Red Planet employees in beach clean-up events organised by Red Planet Hotels at Manila Bay in the Philippines, Tanjung Bayang beach in Indonesia, Bibi Beach in Japan, and Jomtien Beach in Thailand.