Bringing hospitality to communities

What does hospitality mean to you?

Even though I’ve been in the industry for over 20 years, it is a question I often find myself reflecting on, and I’ve also been known to ask my friends and colleagues for their thoughts on that as well (much to their horror sometimes).

For me, the answer is pretty simple. Hospitality is about demonstrating the same warmth and generosity to a stranger that you would when hosting a close friend in your own home. It is about showing kindness and friendship, and making everyone whom you interact with feel welcome and appreciated.

Being in a business of people serving people, we have so many opportunities each day to touch lives in more ways that we can imagine, and with that privilege comes great responsibility. Our duty to uphold the highest standards of hospitality lies not only to our guests who walk through our hotel doors, but also to the communities where we live, work and travel in.

I am glad I am not alone in feeling this way. 

For many years running, our Team Members across Asia Pacific and the globe have united around their passion for hospitality, championing thousands of projects to drive social and environmental change. While these efforts take place through the year, they are most concentrated during Hilton’s 'Global Week of Service', which kicks off today. 

This year, our 'Global Week of Service' is a celebration of community efforts supporting Travel With Purpose and our journey towards our 2030 Goals: to double our investment in social impact and cut our environmental footprint in half. As part of our 2030 goals, we have committed to contributing 10 million volunteer hours through Team Member initiatives.

Addressing issues

Each activity usually takes on a theme, and several projects this year will revolve around food waste, soap recycling and plastic pollution.

For example, closer to home, we will be collecting food waste from our properties, and transforming them into compost for the Ground Up Initiative (GUI). GUI will then grow and harvest produce from the compost, and donate the vegetables to Singapore’s largest soup kitchen.

With global food waste being enough to feed three billion people – more than two times the population in China, and three times the total number of malnourished people globally – we have been kickstarting pilots around the world to understand how to better separate and measure our hotels’ food waste. This Global Week of Service project is an extension of this commitment.

China and India’s Global Week of Service projects will be focused on soap recycling with the goal of alleviating diseases in children caused by inadequate sanitation.

According to the World Health Organization, pneumonia and diarrhea are the top two causes of mortality among children worldwide. In India, 50 per cent of the country’s malnutrition cases are associated with repeated diarrhoea or intestinal worm infections due to unsafe water or poor hygiene.

Hilton properties have been engaging in soap recycling with our local partners since 2009, and this year, we will be refurbishing the facilities at Beijing’s OnePlusOne Centre, which also trains and employs adults with intellectual disabilities, as well as Mumbai’s Sundara Soap Recycling Centre – Supported by Hilton. We will also be recognising the women workers at Sundara who help recycle our hotels’ soaps and spread hygiene awareness among children.

In Australia, our hotels will join hands with Clean Up Australia, a non-profit which aims to inspire and empowers communities to clean and preserve our environment. With an estimated eight million tonnes of plastic waste entering the ocean each year, and research indicating that plastic in our oceans could triple in a decade, we need to take a leadership role to ensure that our destinations remain vibrant and resilient for generations of travelers to come.

To help our environment, we announced our plan to eliminate plastic straws across our managed hotels in Asia Pacific, and transition away from plastic bottles in our conference and event spaces. Our Australia project is part of how we can further the commitment beyond our hotel walls. 

These activities are just but a drop in the many, many hours and projects our Team Members have planned across our hotels and offices in Asia Pacific and beyond. It is heartening to know that whilst we are having our strongest year in trading and openings, our Team Members continue to give so much of themselves to ensure that our communities are benefitting from our success.

I consider my colleagues true comrades in the pursuit of hospitality. Thank you for being an inspiration.