The Basque town’s tourist office and its four conference centres have obtained the ISO 20121 Certification: Responsible Management Systems for its events industry.
For several years, Biarritz Tourisme has been committed to an eco-responsible approach. As a result, the tourist office and its network have been working to address social, environmental and economic issues within the organisation of sustainable events. The result of this commitment was the awarding of the ISO 20121 Certification in April 2022.
The town has taken concrete actions such as the introduction of a circular economy, waste management, working with committed local service providers and awareness raising to achieve its goals. A dedicated officer will be recruited to help further this work in promoting sustainability.
The certified conference centres are: Espace Bellevue, Casino Municipal, Théâtre de la Gare du Midi and Halle d'Iraty.
Biarritz is one of the nine pilot cities for the "Innovative Sustainable Destination" label, for which obtaining the ISO 20121 Certification is a prerequisite. The city decided to pursue a sustainable tourism strategy following the G7 summit it hosted in 2019. At the request of the French G7 Presidency at the time, the summit was exemplary in terms of its limited environmental impact. The success of this event is considered the driving force behind Biarritz’s subsequent actions in this field.
Obtaining this certification is the result of several months of collaborative work between Biarritz Tourisme’s teams and its service providers. It rewards the commitment of everyone involved in making events more ethical. It is also beneficial for our commercial activity as we are thus responding to a growing demand from our customers as regards our commitment to sustainability. We are regularly put in competition against other cities, and we have to show what concrete actions have been implemented on our congress sites. We cannot rest on our laurels after this positive result; it is a standard that requires us to keep a constant watch on the latest developments in order to continuously better ourselves.
Geneviève Fontaine, General Manager of Biarritz Tourisme
