Sustainable Food Tools Manual - Ways to communicate with guests
The main goals of the project 'Sustainable Food Communication' were to develop effective tools for communicating the sustainability dimensions of the food on offer to hotel guests and to measure the impact of different communication instruments on guest awareness, attitudes and behavior regarding sustainable food in holiday hotels.
Fourteen different displays and signage were developed and implemented at the breakfast offer. The local origin and authenticity of food products, as well as the prevention of eatable plate waste, were chosen as the central sustainability dimensions to be communicated to hotel guests. In a series of experiments, the effectiveness of the communication tools was empirically tested and showed consistently positive results. In hotel resorts in Gran Canaria, the use of a combination of tools such as posters (in the lobby), speech bubbles on the buffet, local product displays (on the buffet) and table displays increased the consumption of local food significantly (by up to 350 % per product). At the same time, a combination of tools addressing issues related to food waste reduced the edible plate waste by 15%. Overall, guests consider food sustainability and especially food waste prevention in hotels important. The messages on the communication tools are all effective, and the tools at the guest tables proved most effective in communicating the messages. The results of the experiments and surveys were summarized in individual management summaries for the participating hotels.
