Meet Star Award winner Hotel Gran Rey!

The International Jury awarded the Hotel Gran Rey (ES) from La Gomera in the ‘Reducing impacts on the environment’ category. The Hotel has done a very good and well documented job of implementing different measures to reduce water and electricity consumption, recycle and reduce packaging.

Hosting people, the eco-friendly way

Hotel Gran Rey offers a sustainable place to stay, for all those that want to enjoy a natural holiday. The hotel was created with the philosophy of integrating into the environment. It is located in a landscape formed by steep cliffs, palm groves, springs, and farmhouses. The hotel has eliminated all exotic plants in their landscaped garden and replaced them by native species. It belongs to the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in La Gomera since 2011, and as such, works closely together with the Garajonay National Park.

The staff actively promotes the National Park and pictures of the area decorate the rooms, all aimed at making their visitors aware of the rich natural area they are visiting.

Furthermore, their vegetable garden wants to rescue agricultural varieties that could disappear and recover the soil. Of course, the harvest of the vegetable garden then ends up on the plates of the restaurant that is part of the hotel, effectively creating 0 km produce. They work with local suppliers for anything they cannot grow on their own.

The hotel also actively works on reducing its energy needs, for example through using energy efficient LED lights, and helps remind their visitors to support them in this goal. They have also installed solar panels and renewable energy now makes up 37% of the total energy consumption. Furthermore, Hotel Gran Rey is very conscious about its water-usage: they use drip-irrigation in the gardens and have installed flow restrictors on the taps in the rooms.

All these efforts have resulted in different prizes and certifications. Now, they can add the EUROPARC STAR Award winner to the list!

The Star Awards are EUROPARC’s recognition for the work done by sustainable tourism businesses and operators that are part of the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism.