Learn more about TTG Sustainable Travel Heroes Programme
Video transcript
Jessica Reid, TTG Media
Hola from Andalucia. I'm Jess from TTG Media, and I'm here on the first TTG Sustainable Travel Heroes fam of 2026 in partnership with Iberostar. I've been joined by five Ambassadors in Training, who over the past few days have experienced Iberostar's Wave of Change movement firsthand. The agents also got to know two very different Iberostar hotels, tucked into delicious responsibly sourced food, and learned about the incredible protected ecosystem right on the resort's doorstep. So let's hear from the agents to learn more about their experience.
David Hugo, Wayfarers World Travel
So the rooms at the Iberostar Selection Andalucia Playa are beautiful. Very comfortable and understated. So it's a nice, cool, calm environment. Lovely balconies overlooking the beautiful pool area.
Gemma Parker, Travel Counsellors
I really love the reusable carafe of water which you can refill. There's lots of refill points, but they're really close to the rooms. The coffee machine as well, all the pods are of the sort that are really easily compostable. And I really love the bin that says “We'll recycle for you." That's just a really nice thing you don't have to worry about.
Donna Minett, Travel Counsellors
I think it suits couples and probably families with older children because it's a slightly more refined hotel.
Gemma Parker, Travel Counsellors
Waves is absolutely marketed at children, it has great kids facilities, amazing room setups for children with lots of separate sleeping areas, lots of activities.
Miranda Seymour, Travel Counsellors
One thing I've seen that I really loved is the Star Camp, which is their kids club, because I have a little girl, she's five and she would absolutely love it. But they're teaching them about the oceans, about reusing, recycling, how important it is not to produce plastic pollution. And you can see all their little projects all over the wall. They're growing their own little vegetables outside, and it's fun for them.
Donna Minett, Travel Counsellors
You've got an amazing place where you can go and pick up armbands, buckets and spades, lilos that people have left so you don't have to bring your own. If you don't want to take them home with you, you just pop them in there for the next people to use.
The food is excellent. It's absolutely fantastic. Probably the best all-inclusive food I've had anywhere. It's not just a buffet. They've got live cooking stations. You've got fresh fish that's caught locally, and last night there were tagines. There's an Asian station where you can have a stir-fry, there’s salad stations. I mean, literally, you couldn't really want for more.
David Hugo, Wayfarers World Travel
It just seems it's impossible not to relax, and although the two properties, although they're at high levels of occupancy, they don't feel in any way crowded. It's a great opportunity for people to experience the wonderful La Barrosa beach. Both hotels have beachfront access via a boardwalk which safeguards the sand dunes in the area as well.
Kelly Forbes, A'ARU Collective
So we've just spent an hour with the Iberostar team cycling through the estuaries here in Andalucia. And it was a really great eye-opening opportunity to see a fantastic rewilding project. Just learning about the local flora and fauna, it just adds value, I think, to a guest experience. With the Blue Carbon Project, Iberostar are doing things properly. They are working with the government to reduce their carbon emissions through offsetting. Here you can see it in action. It's really enriching.
Gemma Parker, Travel Counsellors
Everyone wants to go somewhere that's sort of less discovered and it's a side of Spain, an area of Spain that I think not so many people from the UK are familiar with. But you can get out and explore, and you're not even that far from Seville really and Cadiz is really close by.
Miranda Seymour, Travel Counsellors
Really eye-opening, actually, because kind of had this image of what I thought an all-inclusive hotel was. But I've come here and just been quite blown away by a lot of things. How authentic it is. Like, as soon as you walk into the hotel, you can tell you're in Spain. I knew Iberostar were really hot on sustainability, but I had no idea how far they were going, just every single detail in the hotel.
Donna Minett, Travel Counsellors
The recycling system is amazing. They recycle everything from corks to the shells on the beach that people collect in their rooms, and they put them into big bins, and then they redistribute them back onto the beach. Their energy system is very complex. They do a weekly check. They can drill down to each room to make sure the temperatures are correct. And the Winnow system, which is very close to my heart because I'm a foodie and a chef, the way that they are able to weigh their waste means that they can really save on wastage, save on money I just, I think what Iberostar do as a company is completely just incredible, actually.
Gemma Parker, Travel Counsellors
They have character, personality. They have amazing staff that really care about the guest experience. And you feel everywhere that they want tourism to be a force for good and to have a positive impact, and I think that's something you can really convey to clients.
