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| Sustainable tourism is on the rise: consumer demand is growing, travel industry suppliers are developing new green programs, and governments are creating new policies to encourage sustainable practices in tourism. But what does sustainable tourism really mean and how can it be measured and credibly demonstrated to build consumer confidence, promote efficiency, and fight greenwashing? | |
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In order to mainstream sustainable tourism it must be easy to understand for tourists and tourism businesses alike. There must be educational tools and market access mechanisms to drive learning about sustainability as well as create tangible financial incentives. | |
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The Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria were developed as part of a broad initiative managed by The Partnership for Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC Partnership), a coalition of over 40 organizations working together to foster increased understanding of sustainable tourism practices and the adoption of universal sustainable tourism principles.
The Partnership was initiated by the Rainforest Alliance, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Foundation, and the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
In an effort to come to a common understanding of sustainable tourism, the GSTC Partnership developed a set of baseline criteria organized around the four pillars of sustainable tourism: effective sustainability planning; maximizing social and economic benefits to the local community; reduction of negative impacts to cultural heritage; and reduction of negative impacts to environmental heritage.
To develop these criteria, the partnership consulted with sustainability experts and the tourism industry and reviewed more than 60 existing certification and voluntary sets of criteria already being implemented around the globe. In all, more than 4,500 criteria have been analyzed and the resulting draft criteria have received comments from over 1000 stakeholders. The partnership was dedicated to engaging all tourism stakeholders—from purchasers to suppliers to consumers—to adopt the criteria. To facilitate this, the partnership developed educational materials and technical tools to guide hotels and tour operators through the process of implementing sustainable tourism best practices.
The Partnership's vision for the Criteria included the following:
- Serve as basic guidelines for businesses of all sizes to become more sustainable, and help businesses choose sustainable tourism programs that fulfill these global criteria;
- Serve as guidance for travel agencies in choosing suppliers and sustainable tourism programs;
- Help consumers identify sound sustainable tourism programs and businesses;
- Serve as a common denominator for media to recognize sustainable tourism providers;
- Help certification and other voluntary programs ensure that their standards meet a broadly-accepted baseline;
- Offer governmental, non-governmental and private sector programs a starting point for developing sustainable tourism requirements; and
- Serve as baseline guidelines for education and training bodies such as hotel schools and Universities.
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EXPECTED OUTCOMES
Today, Solimar continues its support and work with the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria through its technical assistance to the Tourism Sustainability Council (TSC), an organization dedicated to minimizing the effects of greenwashing and mainstreaming sustainability through the accreditation of tourism certification programs and the development of tools and resources that will assist tourism businesses increase their sustainable operations and inform consumers on best practices.
In addition to revisions, additions, and continual public consultation to the criteria, Solimar sits in leadership roles in several TSC working groups tasked with the creation of the following products:
- A dynamic and interactive website that serves as an educational hub for tourism businesses on how to become more sustainable and acquire the resources necessary to increase their sustainable operations
- A series of educational modules to be used in university and travel trade curriculum describing the history of the GSTC and potential applications for businesses of all sizes and types
- An open source self-assessment tool for businesses to measure their current operations against the GSTC and identify target areas for improvement
- A market access program that harmonizes data from global assessments and certification programs and provides a unique and easily-recognizable index for sustainable tourism businesses
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