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Barcelona Pere Tarrés Youth Hostel receives Biosphere certification for commitment to the environment
WYSE News | March 24, 2023

This week, Barcelona Pere Tarrés Youth Hostel was awarded the Biosphere certification, one of the most important sustainability accreditations in the tourism sector, in recognition of its dedication to environmental and social sustainability.

The Biosphere Sustainable for Hostels certification is a tourism sustainability certification designed for accommodation that offers shared rooms at very affordable prices, with the aim of encouraging cultural exchange between tourists from different places of origin, especially young people. Hostels accredited with this certification feature common areas, a private kitchen and spaces to interact and socialise. Hostels must also have in place a development plan linked to the UN SDGs that involves the participation of the hostel staff.

One of the Pere Tarrés Foundation’s main objectives is to contribute to the creation of a more equal society. To achieve this, it is committed to improving environmental and social sustainability through working towards the UN SDGS, incorporating a sustainable vision of education and leisure whilst expanding its social action programmes. Pere Tarrés Youth Hostel has been working towards these goals for several years, with the intention of becoming a benchmark in Barcelona in terms of inclusion and commitment to the environment.

In 2019, Pere Tarrés Youth Hostel won the Social Responsibility Initiative Award at WYSE Travel Confederation’s Global Youth Travel Awards, an event that brings together youth tourism organisations and professionals from around the world. The Award recognised the Hostel’s efforts in projects such as ‘Help them grow’, which aims to reduce social inequality by offering thousands of children and girls in vulnerable situations the opportunity to participate in educational activities at the Pere Tarrés Foundation.

Pere Tarrés Youth Hostel has also been awarded the Generalitat de Catalunya environmental protection badge, the international ISO9001 certificate and was the first hostel in Spain to receive the Hostelling International ‘HI-Q’ distinction award.

 

About the Pere Tarrés Foundaton
The Pere Tarrés Foundation, based in Barcelona, has been in existence for more than 60 years. It is a not-for-profit organisation for education and social action that began in order to promote education through leisure for children and young people. It promotes leisure education, volunteering and improved social intervention. Its activities have gradually been expanded into other areas of social action, such as training, research and management.

About Biosphere
Biosphere develops certifications to guarantee compliance with the principles of sustainability and continuous improvement, through a private, voluntary and independent certification system. The Biosphere certification is awarded by the Responsible Tourism Institute (RTI), an independent body created in 1995 with the aim of promoting sustainable development actions and programmes in tourism destinations and companies.