Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort, Aruba announces its commitment to furthering the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The resort integrates SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being, which focuses on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages, into its operations, guest experience and community outreach. This is the latest as it continues unveiling the SDGs that power a vacation at the Caribbean’s first and only certified carbon-neutral hotel.
Sustainability is woven throughout the resort’s entire operations and experience. Through a series of innovative initiatives and partnerships, Bucuti & Tara continues to set the standard for sustainable hospitality practices in the Caribbean. The resort is independently owned and owner-managed and works tirelessly to reinvest in its infrastructure, staff, community and guests. Key highlights of the resort’s commitment to SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being include:
Guest focused. Bucuti & Tara offers guests an extensive wellness program led by certified wellness specialists designed to promote physical, mental, and emotional well-being. From yoga and meditation sessions on the beach along with sunrise mindfulness walks to wholesome dining options crafted in Healthy Portions, guests have access to holistic experiences that rejuvenate the body and soul for safe, optimal living. The resort provides guests with access to forward-thinking fitness facilities, including a fully equipped gym featuring electricity-generating bicycles and treadmills and a beachfront spa treatment cabana. The resort can assist guests with renting bicycles or electric vehicles for exploring the island and reducing carbon emissions.
Guests can relax knowing they are staying at a resort that cares about the air they breathe thanks to air purifiers and humidifiers. The island’s tap water is amongst the highest rated by the World Health Organization and guests are gifted with a keepsake canteen to refill often during their stay. Rooms are cleaned and sanitized with doctor-created, high-tech, hospital-grade protocols.
Staff focused. Providing a healthy experience for guests starts onsite with caring for the resort’s most valuable asset, its beloved Bucuti Associates. There are stringent protocols in place ensuring that every staff member has a safe, healthy workplace. Cleaning involves safe cleaning solutions and not toxic chemicals and ongoing training keeps staff knowledgeable of best practices. Bucuti & Tara provides employee gym memberships, private insurance, employee support programs, diversity equity and inclusion training, nutritious break room dining and a smoke-free environment. Instead of employee holiday parties, each staff member receives a bountiful food basket. During the most trying times of the pandemic, Bucuti & Tara was the only Aruba resort to keep staff employed for their wellbeing and that of their families on an island where 90% of its GDP is derived from tourism. In helping staff afford sustainable solutions in their home lives, the resort also provides green loans for electric vehicles, solar power and more.
Community focused. The resort actively engages with the local community to promote health and well-being beyond its property boundaries. By partnering with schools, healthcare providers, and nonprofit organizations, Bucuti & Tara supports initiatives that improve access to healthcare, education, and recreational opportunities for all residents of Aruba. These extensive efforts include founding a subsidized spay/neuter foundation that has helped curb the island’s pet overpopulation with treating more than 37,000 local dogs and cats, teaching local school children how to farm on the arid island and become entrepreneurs by selling their crops to the resort’s restaurant, a recent tire inflation event for safe driving, partnering with University of Aruba for hospitality and environmental studies and hands-on learning and more.
Environmental conservation. Bucuti & Tara actively advocates for and preserves Aruba’s natural beauty for future generations. As Owner/CEO Ewald Biemans shares, “We are not in the tourism business, we are in the nature business. People come from all over the world to experience the natural beauty of Aruba, especially our powdery white sand beaches and turquoise clear water. I moved here 50 years ago. As I saw the pristine coastline become dotted with construction cranes reaching up to the sky to build mega-resorts, I witnessed our natural resources becoming depleted faster than could be sustained.”
Bucuti & Tara is the Caribbean’s first and only certified carbon-neutral hotel. Its extensive framework includes more than 400 initiatives implemented as the resort journeys closer to Net Zero. Through initiatives directly related to SDG 3 such as guest and staff beach clean-ups, marine conservation efforts, sustainable landscaping practices and the debut of its carbon sink, The Bucuti Tara – GMC Nature Preserve, the resort minimizes its environmental impact and safeguards the health of the island’s ecosystems.
“As just one of the dedicated stewards of Aruba’s beautiful island paradise, Bucuti & Tara recognizes the importance of prioritizing the health and well-being of our guests, staff, and community. By incorporating Sustainable Development Goal 3 into our resort operations, we are enriching the guest experience in a way we hope they’ll carry forward while also making a positive impact on society and the environment.”
Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort’s commitment to SDG 3 exemplifies its dedication to responsible tourism and sets a precedent for sustainable hospitality practices worldwide. By prioritizing health and well-being, the resort continues to inspire guests and industry peers alike to join in the journey towards a more sustainable future.
Guests increasingly seek solution-oriented travel
While going on vacation keeps its allure of escaping the everyday and having new experiences, today’s travelers are also seeking solution-oriented travel. Luxury travel advisors, Virtuoso, revealed its top 9 ‘must-have’ travel experiences of 2024 and among the criteria travelers are seeking: wellness. Sustainability as another criteria continues to grow as travelers look to exercise mindfulness and respect for the community and destinations they visit – something Bucuti & Tara welcomes helping them do.
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Article written by Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort
