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African Sustainable Tourism Certifiers Support Tourism Sustainability Council
Tuesday, 30 Jan, 2010
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Representatives of 11 African sustainable tourism certification schemes and other sustainable tourism talked to representatives of the newly formed Tourism Sustainability Council (TSC).
Delegates, development banks and donors operating in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Rwanda and Morocco came together in Johannesburg under the auspices of FTTSA.
The meeting was facilitated by the Sustainable Tourism Network Southern Africa (STNSA), of which Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa (FTTSA) is the Secretariat. FTTSA in a non-profit organisation that promotes sustainability in tourism through: awareness raising, capacity building, research and advocacy, certification and marketing.
The Tourism Sustainability Council (TSC) was formed in September 2009 to offer support and tools to international tourism stakeholders to ensure that tourism helps, rather than damages, local communities and the environment. The TSC has proposed an international accreditation system for sustainable tourism certification programmes. The main purpose of the meeting was to elicit input from African certification programmes that will be amongst the future users of the accreditation system.
Delegates expressed support for the TSC accreditation system, although a number of questions were also raised:
Many certification organisations were concerned that compliance with an international accreditation programme could potentially undermine the authority of strong national accreditation processes of counties such as South Africa and Brazil.
Although the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC), on which the TSC accreditation standards will in part be based, are internationally recognised standards, the GSTC need to be further clarified and would also have to be flexible to fit the African context.
Accreditation fees should be affordable and announced far in advance to enable certification organizations to build these fees into annual budgets and fee structures.
The possibilities that the TSC will in future offer membership directly to the tourism private sector could inadvertently undermine local certification programmes.
Apart from enabling African stakeholders to engage with the TSC, the meeting also enabled African certification organizations to network and exchange information with each other, which is essential for a more integrated approach to sustainable tourism on the continent.
FTTSA Executive Director, Jennifer Seif summed up the meeting: “It would have been impossible only a few years ago for African stakeholders to participate with such strong agreement in this type of meeting. Networking has created strong trust and collegiality between the various certification organizations on offer in Africa, and the Sustainable Tourism Network Southern Africa is prepared to take on the role of focal point for future consultation with the TSC.”
The TSC, formed in September 2009, is a merger between the Partnership for Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC) and the Sustainable Tourism Stewardship Council (STSC)
The Sustainable Tourism Network Southern Africa initiative aims to establish an integrated, regional approach to sustainable tourism development in the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
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