TUI Care Foundation Launches Sea Turtle Conservation Programme in Greece

The beaches of Rethymno and Chania in northern Crete are vital nesting grounds for endangered loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta).

However, as tourism infrastructure expands along these coastal areas, this rich natural heritage faces growing pressure from beachfront activities, artificial lighting, and human disturbance during the nesting season.

To help protect endangered sea turtles, the TUI Care Foundation, in partnership with ARCHELON, is launching a new one-year conservation project that empowers local communities and tourism businesses to safeguard marine turtle populations.

The project is set to establish nest monitoring and protection programmes across 24 kilometres of nesting beaches, turtle-friendly best practices for coastal businesses, and environmental education activities reaching over 20,000 people across the region.

This fourth phase of TUI Turtle Aid Greece builds on a successful collaboration between the two organisations that began in 2018, protecting almost 2,000 nests and over 800,000 hatchlings and certifying eight hotels in turtle-friendly practices. The initiative continues to address tourism-related pressures on nesting habitats by building local conservation capacity, protecting critical nesting habitats and integrating sea turtle conservation into tourism operations.

The project will implement daily nest monitoring and protection activities across 24 kilometres of nesting beaches in Rethymno and Chania throughout the nesting season. Trained field teams will conduct morning surveys to locate and mark new nests, safeguard an estimated 250 additional nests with appropriate protective caging where necessary, and monitor incubation success to ensure approximately 18,000 hatchlings reach the sea safely.

The programme will provide ongoing support for eight hotels participating in the TUI Turtle Friendly Tourism Certification scheme, a global framework developed by the TUI Care Foundation and validated by independent and local sea turtle conservation organisations such as ARCHELON in Greece and EKAD in Türkiye for beachfront hotels and tourism businesses.

The certification recognises establishments that actively reduce their impact on sea turtle habitats, for example by adapting lighting, protecting nesting beaches and training staff in conservation practices. The programme’s support consists in training workshops reaching over 200 employees, as well as working with 20 additional coastal businesses through presentations, one-to-one meetings, and on-site awareness activities.

Environmental education activities will engage 500 local schoolchildren across 10 schools through classroom presentations and beach visits, whilst public awareness campaigns will reach over 20,000 visitors and local community members through two information kiosks operating throughout the tourist season in Rethymno and Chania respectively, as well as public presentations, guided beach walks and public nest excavations.

Workshops will bring together 100 local and regional authority representatives to strengthen collaboration between conservation practitioners, tourism operators, coastal communities and government agencies. Additionally, the project will support the TUI Turtle Aid Network to further enhance the certification model for coastal businesses.

Overall, TUI Turtle Aid Greece will directly benefit coastal communities, tourism businesses and conservation practitioners across northern Crete and protect critical marine habitats spanning 1.4 million square metres.

This project is part of the global TUI Turtle Aid Programme, which shows how tourism, conservation and community engagement can work together to protect sea turtles. By combining on-the-ground conservation with education, partnerships and innovative initiatives such as the turtle-friendly certification, the programme supports conservation activities across multiple destinations worldwide.