Ninety-two different tourism projects from every part of the country were submitted to the jury of this year's MILESTONE Tourism Prize for Switzerland. The jury conferred the environment award on the <link www.htr-milestone.ch/de/milestones/projekt.html - external-link-new-window>climate project of the Hotel Courtyard and myclimate</link> in Zurich North (one of three nominated projects) at the ceremony in the Kursaal in Berne!
MILESTONE is seen as the most important award within the Swiss tourism industry and recognises outstanding and innovative products and services.
<link myclimate.org KlimaLokal Zürich Nord>Hotel Courtyard</link> uses a variety of measures to keep emissions that impact the environment to an absolute minimum. In July 2011, Courtyard took another massive step forward by offering the myclimate Climate Package for a surcharge. Guests can now protect the climate in two ways: first by supporting the ongoing KlimaLokal initiative, where the goal is to work with Zurich North residents to measurably cut down on CO₂ and secondly, by enjoying a climate-neutral overnight stay where any emissions generated are offset in a climate protection project in Malawi. Three thousand packages have already been bought since the launch last year.
Richard Kämpf, Head of Tourism at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO): "The joint Zurich North climate project of the Marriott Hotel Courtyard Zurich and myclimate inspired me. It is innovative, successful and genuinely sustainable. I am particularly fascinated by the wide-ranging interpretation of sustainability. But it is the cooperation with the local citizens within the scope of the KlimaLokal initiative that I find especially remarkable. The various activities testify to exemplary creativity and foresight."