Breaking Travel News interview: Stephan Mühlmann, owner, Naturhotel Leitlhof
Naturhotel Leitlhof has been honoured with the title of Europe’s Leading Green Hotel at the World Travel Awards.
Here Breaking Travel News speaks to hotel owner, Stephan Mühlmann, to find out how it feels to have been recognised by voters from around the globe.
Breaking Travel News: Having claimed a top title at the World Travel Awards, how does it feel to have won?
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Stephan Mühlmann: It feels great!
Since 2012 we have been working on making our Naturhotel Leitlhof as sustainable and climate friendly as possible.
We put a lot of energy into our philosophy and always try to develop further.
To be recognised as Europe’s Leading Green Hotel confirms that we are on the right track and that our efforts are appreciated.
The last two years haven’t been the easiest ones for the tourism sector in general, the happier we are now to have been confirmed by an international jury.
BTN: How will the trophy help you to promote Naturhotel Leitlhof as we move into 2022?
SM: We have been committed to sustainability for a long time now.
In the first few years we found poor soil with suppliers and guests, but this has continuously improved in recent years.
We hope that the award will increase our guests’ awareness for a more sustainable lifestyle.
We want to set a good example in a very delicate phase of climate change and motivate the tourism industry to follow our example.
We have managed to reduce the CO2 emissions per guest and overnight stay from 140 kilograms to 12.8 kilograms.
If we can do it also others can!
BTN: What is it that caught the eye of voters; what do you think it is that separates Naturhotel Leitlhof from its competitors in Europe?
SM: I think it’s the fact that we try to be climate neutral and sustainable in several ways.
We were already recognised as Europe’s Leading Green Hotel back in 2016, mainly because of our sustainable production of electricity and heat from wood chips.
Since then, we have worked intensively on our concept and have been able to continuously improve.
We have been able to significantly increase the efficiency of our energy production and have excluded the use of plastic wherever possible.
We buy regional products, have managed to reduce long transports and expanded our range of vegetables and herbs in our gardens.
In 2017 we took a very important step: we changed our agricultural activity and started to breed Angus cattle on our own farm.
We are now able to cover a large part of the meat consumption of our guests with our own meat of the highest organic quality.
I think our constant striving to improve on all sides and our determination convinced the jury!
More Information
Find out more about Naturhotel Leitlhof in Italy on the official website.