As awareness and concern for the environment grow, more hotel chains are stepping up to incorporate sustainability into their core operations. In the Philippines, this is realized in the form of El Nido Resorts. Owned by Ayala Land and operated by Ten Knots Group, El Nido Resorts spans four eco-resorts: Miniloc Island Resort, Lagen Island Resort, Apulit Island Resort, and Pangulasian Island Resort.
The resorts have gained a reputation for upholding the values of sustainable tourism. Indeed, the group has gained recognition for its feats, from being named among Asia’s leading sustainable resorts to placing among the finalists of the International Ecotourism Awards. Much of this, director of sustainability Mariglo Laririt says, has to do with the resorts’ long history in the tourism industry.
“It’s important to mention that El Nido Resorts has been in the tourism industry for many years,” Laririt tells Sustainable Food Business. “In fact, the first El Nido Resort was established in 1979. This, coupled with many changes in ownership hands — most of whom, fortunately, have consistently upheld principles of sustainability — has given us many years to learn and grow as a sustainable tourism company.”
El Nido Resorts: Committing to ethical sourcing
El Nido Resorts comprise a group of island resorts scattered across the El Nido-Taytay municipalities in northern Palawan, bringing about a host of logistical challenges. The fact that the resorts are located in the Philippines — which has been ranked the top most disaster-prone country in the world — only adds to this.
Laririt and her team, however, have been steadfast in their commitment to maintaining a sustainable resort. A major aspect of their strategy? Utilizing the resources in the Palawan vicinity to source locally. “We started to dig deeper into what we had in the community,” explains Laririt.
With pork, El Nido Resorts have established their own farm with “happy pigs” that roam freely and are raised without inorganic feed.
“We are a big pork-eating country and so how pigs are raised vary across the country,” she shares. “For us, we’ve been at this since 2004 and so we’ve come up with a formula that has gotten rid of the need for medicine or inorganic products that makes meat of those types unhealthy. Instead, we create our own food for them through a combination of fish feed, calcium from shells, molasses, rice husks and fermented juices.”
Ensuring poultry and eggs are ethically sourced are next on their list. El Nido Resorts now sources only free-range eggs at all of its hotel locations, and is committed to continuing to do so. This move is in line with a broad shift across the Philippines hospitality sector, as over 80% of hotel chains in the country have now committed to shift to cage-free or free-range eggs. In the next couple of years Laririt and her team will also be exploring local sourcing options for El Nido’s free-range eggs.
One such way is by establishing a similar farm to raise chickens on-site. It’s an initiative that’s been on the cards for over two years, but certain challenges, such as the recent droughts caused by the El Niño phenomenon, have acted as setbacks.
“One thing about the Philippines is that it’s still playing catch-up in pushing for ethical raising of chickens, in particular,” explains Laririt. “There is this one supplier that we found and we’ve been buying from them for some time, but it hasn’t been consistent supply. So the combination of supporting community, lowering food miles, making sure the food is ethically sourced and animals ethically raised is compelling us to do things on our own, as we did with the pigs.
“At the moment, we buy as much as we can from our suppliers and hopefully spur the demand for free-range eggs in the process. In the meantime, we’re working towards becoming self-sufficient in sourcing eggs and poultry. I can’t say when this will be realized, but I’m confident that we will get there.”
Creating a sustainable menu
On the other hand, scarce resources have forced the group to make drastic changes to their menu. This is perhaps most greatly realized through the decision to stop serving lobsters and red groupers — the latter of which is a Filipino delicacy.
“Something we actively do is partner with universities to study what’s happening to the flora and fisheries around us,” explains Laririt. “What we’ve found is that there’s a dwindling population of red groupers due to overfishing. It’s important to ensure they have a viable population — if they continue to be fished out, there could be a localized extinction. Pulling them from the menu was a drastic move, but one that couldn’t be avoided.”
Instead, El Nido Resorts searches for alternatives to serve its clientele. Encouraging local farmers to grow vegetables has been one such strategy. Another has been to modify its menu to serve dishes that are not as commonly practiced in the Philippines, but are best suited for the local supply they have access to.
For ingredients that are not as commonly found, Laririt and her team are turning to on-the-ground work. Educating local farmers and encouraging them to grow vegetables has been a large part of their strategy.
“Vegetables are not commonly grown or eaten in Palawan,” she says. “The soil is not suitable and there is no vegetable-consuming culture here. So it has been a real challenge to source vegetables locally compared to resorts in Manila, for example, who may have more options due to being in the city center.”
Innovation in the kitchen
Another challenge Laririt highlights is that of preparing food for guests with different palettes. More of the world’s population turns to plant-based or vegetarian diets for a variety of reasons, from maintaining good health to reducing their carbon footprint. The chefs at El Nido Resorts have been working on creating dishes that can cater to such tastes.
“If you’re in the kitchen and you know that your guest cannot eat whatever you have, it’s important to be open to what your colleagues can teach you about other dietary preferences,” Laririt says. “I remember how our chefs would default to a stir-fry option for vegetarian guests, but now as our clientele expands, we’ve had to teach ourselves to prepare dishes from other cultures, as well. It really requires leadership from the executive chef to show innovations in how food can be prepared.”
In this, El Nido Resorts has separated itself as an outlier in sustainable tourism within the Philippines. Laririt hopes to see more action from other Filipino resorts — but much of this, she says, is highly dependent on the local agricultural sector.
“I believe a lot of resorts would want to offer and respond to the changes that they are witnessing, but really, the agriculture in our country has to catch up,” she says. “If we can’t even feed our population sufficiently with the right priced grains, for example, or the right sources of protein — 70% of Filipino protein comes from the sea — if we’re not serious about protecting that, we will have to pay for it in some way or another.”
In the meantime, Laririt and her team are working hard to take on a leadership role within the industry, hoping to prompt other resorts to establish more sustainable policies of their own.
“I understand that most people don’t have the privilege to sit back and think about if something is ethical or not, but if you do, then you must,” she affirms. “Because of the length of time we’ve been here we have whether willingly or not taken on a leadership role, which we are very serious about.
“I and my team have deliberately sought over the years to participate in contests, actively seek awards and recognition. By doing that, we learn about the newest trends in various aspects of sustainable tourism. And so sustainability advocates/practitioners delight in seeing other people follow their examples.”
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