Hotels join fight against shark fin trade
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Several Asian hoteliers have joined the campaign to stop the shark fin trade, as the travel and hospitality industries become a no-go area for the damaging trade.
This week, Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group became the latest major hospitality company to announce that it has now stopped serving shark fin dishes at hotels and restaurants across the Asia Pacific. In doing so, it joins other global and regional hotel groups including Starwood, Hilton, Peninsula and Shangri-La.
“By making this stance, Carlson Rezidor hopes to encourage others to join this ban, influence consumer behaviour and more importantly, to contribute to the preservation of marine biodiversity for the benefit of future generations,” said Thorsten Kirschke, Carlson Rezidor’s president for Asia Pacific.
“This ban on shark fin at our leased and managed hotels and Food & Beverage outlets and moving towards sustainable seafood is our commitment to operating as a responsible business,” he added.
Carlson Rezidor’s move follows that of Thailand’s Centara Hotels & Resorts, which last week announced that it had joined the ‘Fin Free Thailand campaign’ and will now wipe all shark fin dishes off its menus.
Centara’s hotels in Pattaya have become the first to stop serving of shark fin, with others in the group following later this year.
In addition, 13 Thai properties in the Unique Collection of Hotels & Resorts have also joined the campaign, including the De Naga Hotel Chiang Mai, Sukhothai Heritage Resort, Blue Ocean Resort Phuket and Samui Palm Beach Resort.
These efforts are part of a broader initiative encompassing all a range of travel industry sectors to help combat the shark fin trade, which is devastating shark populations and threatening marine ecosystems.
Numerous regional airlines, including Thai Airways, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Air New Zealand, Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific, Asiana Airlines and Korean Air, have stopped carrying shark fin products aboard their flights, and the absence of shark fin dishes from the banqueting menus of many top Asian hotels will provide a major boost for the campaign to end shark finning.
An estimated 73 million sharks are killed each year for their fins and flesh.
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