New York, June 20, 2019 – To celebrate Pollinator Month, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, a pioneer of responsible tourism and sound environmental practices, has announced the next evolution of its Bee Sustainable programming with the launch of a new interactive digital hub, fairmontbeesustainable.com. The new platform was created to help educate guests and Fairmont colleagues about the importance of global bee health and to encourage visitors to follow along through in-depth analysis, real time hive monitoring and the latest updates from its rooftop apiaries and bee hotels.
“As the first luxury hotel brand to develop comprehensive onsite bee programming, Fairmont is an industry leader in the support of sustainable practices; the evolution of our continued commitment over the past 10 years with the creation of our Bee Sustainable initiative is no exception,” said Sharon Cohen, Vice President, Fairmont Brand. “Fairmont hotels around the world take great pride in the contribution to their local communities and through the development of our on-property bee hives and sustainable bee habitats, we are able to further promote the significance of pollinator health globally.”
To share with guests A Day in the Life of a Fairmont Bee, the brand has championed an exciting digital pilot, the first of its kind in the hospitality industry, by installing cameras and hive-tracking devices at five of its properties around the world, including Fairmont Waterfront, Fairmont Washington D.C., and Fairmont San Francisco. State-of-the-art technology tracked the number of visiting bees and distance they travelled per day while honey data collected included analysis of the flower, tree and plant nectars used, the classification of color and grade according to the Pfund scale and the rate of humidity.
As June marks Pollinator Month, Fairmont properties across North America are celebrating through customized onsite activities including interactive guest experiences, signature menus and customized stay offers.
- Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver is launching its very own vlog series, “The Buzz” in an effort to share the importance of bees and create positive community connections through short and meaningful stories. The hotel will continue to host daily honeybee apiary tours through September 30th with a honey-tasting post tour in ARC. The restaurant also features a Pollinator menu featuring over 20 foods that require pollination, including the hotel’s signature Wayward Gin distilled with rooftop honey and food items using beeswax re-usable sandwich wraps.
- Fairmont Orchid on Hawaii’s Big Island has launched a Botanical Garden and Bee Tour to celebrate the significance bees have to the Hawaiian culture, culinary offerings and sustainability efforts. This hour-long tour will take place on June 25 and culminate in a honey and wine tasting. The experience will feature an in-depth exploration of several tropical plant species, the hotel’s four flow hives filled with 80,000 honeybees and nature trails passing through waterfalls and ocean vistas.
- Fairmont Empress has partnered with local beekeepers to run two popular kid focused Get Buzzy interactive field trip workshops, as well as “Bees and the Birds” workshops for locals and guests hosted in Centennial Garden. The hotel is also running a BEE Your Selfie contest on Instagram and Facebook, where contest entrants post a selfie in front of the beehives in the Centennial Garden for a chance to win Champagne Tea at the Empress for two, an Empress busy bees apron and Empress honey jars prize basket.
- Fairmont Olympic Seattle has recently introduced the newest spirit in Seattle – Sun Liquor’s Olympic Honey Vodka – made with honey from the bees that live perched atop the hotel in downtown Seattle. The custom blend has been three years in the making alongside Sun Liquor, a local Seattle distillery, and is being unveiled in the hotel’s custom drink Nectar on the Roof and in a special menu of summer cocktails.
- To celebrate the 100th anniversary of prohibition, Fairmont Chateau Whistler created the prohibition-era Bees Knees #2. A nod to a Prohibition classic, this timely take on the Bees Knees encompasses Fairmont Chateau Whistler’s bee program by creating house-made Beeswax Gin (beeswax sous vide with Canadian Ungava gin) and combining it with simple syrup, vanilla syrup, and fresh squeezed lemon. Served in a coupe glass, it’s rimmed with dehydrated honey from the hotel’s rooftop honeybees.
- To celebrate Pollinator Month, Fairmont San Jose will be offering a special appetizer and cocktail pairing in the Lobby Lounge featuring the hotel’s house honey. The appetizer will be “Buzzy Bruschetta,” a twist on the classic favorite featuring honey-macerated blackberries, honey ricotta and local sourdough bread. This dish will be perfectly paired with the deconstructed Bee’s Knees cocktail, which will be beautifully presented as a create-your-own cocktail kit highlighting the freshly harvested honey.
- Fairmont Palliser has introduced a summer-themed cocktail made from Hawthorn Gin and the hotel’s fully-sustainable O.D.B. beer, both of which contain honey from Fairmont Palliser’s beehives.
- The environmental stewards at Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa will create convert one of Chef’s cutting gardens to a Seasonal Bee Garden, and create an observation honeybee hive to start meaningful conversations about honeybees and local agriculture.
- Fairmont Washington D.C., Georgetown will boast a large cherry blossom tree in the hotel lobby, suspended with faux monarch butterflies and wild flowers and featuring gold mirrored “honeycomb” shelving units leading up to the tree.
For close to 30 years, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has been committed to proactively protecting local environments through its award-winning Fairmont Sustainability Partnership, now part of Accor’s Planet21 program. Over the last decade, Fairmont has committed itself to improving the overall health and conservation of bee species globally, and has built more than 40 apiaries and wild bee hotels at properties around the world, including most recently, Fairmont’s first foray into France with its newly opened bee hotel at Accor’s global headquarters in Paris. For guests looking to further their support of bee health at home, the brand will have its own mini bee hotels available this summer at fairmontstore.com.
For more information on the Fairmont Bee Sustainable program and the importance of honeybees and wild bees please visit fairmontbeesustainable.com.
About Fairmont
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is where occasions are celebrated and history is made. Landmark hotels with unrivalled presence, authentic experiences and unforgettable moments have attracted visitors to Fairmont and its destinations since 1907. The Plaza in New York City, The Savoy in London, Fairmont San Francisco, Fairmont Banff Springs and Fairmont Peace Hotel in Shanghai are but a few of these iconic luxury hotels, forever linked to the special places where they reside. Famous for its engaging service, grand public spaces, locally inspired cuisine and celebrated bars and lounges, Fairmont promises a special brand of thoughtful luxury that will be remembered long after any visit. With a worldwide portfolio of more than 75 hotels, Fairmont also takes great pride in its deep community roots and leadership in sustainability. Fairmont is part of Accor, a world-leading augmented hospitality group offering unique and meaningful experiences in 4,800 hotels, resorts, and residences across 100 countries.
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About Pollinator Partnership
The Pollinator Partnership (P2) is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated exclusively to the protection and promotion of pollinators and their ecosystems. Birds, bats, bees, butterflies, beetles, and small mammals that pollinate plants are responsible for bringing us one out of every three bites of food. P2 works with farmers, beekeepers, scientists, governments and members of industry to promote actions and policy that benefit, protect, and promote pollinators. Without the actions of pollinators, agricultural economies, our food supply, and surrounding landscapes would be in peril. In 2018 P2 celebrated over 20 years of action and advocacy for pollinators. Visit www.pollinator.org to learn more.