WORDS MEGAN TATUM


THE BIGGER PICTURE


NEEDS MEETING MANY H


OUSED IN THE IMPOSING concrete building of Amsterdam’s former Bijlmerbajes psychiatric prison, The Movement Hotel opened in 2017, a year after its last inmates had left, and a few months after refugees were moved temporarily into an adjacent part of the sprawling complex.


Refugees now staff this unique city hotel, with the converted space offering double bedrooms, recreational areas, meeting rooms and a restaurant serving harissa meatballs and halloumi. “We hope to show that big businesses can play a role in resettling refugees, especially


BIG BUSINESSES CAN PLAY A ROLE IN


RESETTLING REFUGEES


hotels,” says Charlie MacGregor, founder and chief executive of The Student Hotel, one of the organisations behind the project. The Movement Hotel is one of a growing


number of initiatives from hotels, venues and travel operators that incorporate giving back. For buyers arranging conferences, seminars or away days, these are opportuni- ties to factor CSR into their choices. “From a travel buyer’s point of view, doing business with companies with a proven record of strong CSR initiatives shows that they are working with a responsible company whose priorities


buyingbusinesstravel.com


It’s increasingly popular to arrange meetings or events with corporate social responsibility in mind, and now there are many initiatives that are underpinned with a social conscience


align with their own,” says Mark Wilson, general manager at Travel Counsellors for Business. “This can have the added benefit of supporting their own social initiatives.” Some meetings venues offer a CSR op-


portunity, such as London’s Toynbee Hall. Recently re-opened to bookings after three years of renovations, the Grade II-listed building has two historic halls and three meeting rooms for hire, catering for up to 100 people in one space. All profits go into its charitable activities with the focus on alleviating poverty in east London via youth projects, educational programmes and research. Not-for-profit Central Hall


in Westminster, one of London’s largest pur- pose-built conference and events venues with 25 rooms for hire (catering for 60 to 500 people), puts its profits into homeless shel- ters, food banks and crisis centres for women. Meanwhile, Radisson


hotels’ Blu Meeting initia- tive calculates the carbon impact of its events and offsets it by funding water sustainability projects in Guatemala, Malawi and India. ■ The Movement Hotel: themovementhotel.com; Toynbee Hall: toynbeehall.org.uk; Central Hall Westminster: c-h-w.com; Blu Meetings, Radisson Hotel Group: radissonhotelgroup.com/meetings


HIGH HOPES Further afield, a new non-profit


project aims to make use of airline frequent flyer programmes. As part of a CSR commitment, travel managers could recommend Miles4Migrants, a US-based charity, to their travellers. It uses donated frequent flyer miles to fly refugees to their new homes and reunites separated families. miles4migrants.org


2018 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 33


Top: The Movement Hotel in Amsterdam Below: Radisson offers “Blu Meetings”


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