Call for entries for European Sustainable Tourism Awards: Reminder:

Its time to get around to submitting your nominations for the VESTAs: entries close shortly.

Vision on Sustainable Tourism, in partnership with the DestiNet Sustainable Tourism Information and Communications Portal, launched a new Sustainable Tourism Award at this year’s ITB Berlin.  The VESTAs differ from other awards in as much as they are  an ´award of awards and certification processes` at the European level, bringing together a wide range of top-class best practice sustainable tourism examples from the whole tourism supply chain, and covering all types of European landscapes.

There has already been interest in submitting nominations from 14 different countries.  If you want to stand out in the world of sustainability, here is an opportunity you need to take. All nominees will be entered on DestiNet´s prestigious globally distributed Sustainable Tourism Market Place, and be part of a regular feature in Vision`s weekly mail-outs.

Winners of the awards will be highlighted to members of a network of 7,000 specialist European travel agents, and brought to the attention of the UN WTO and UNEP as Europe´s best of the best practice examples, as well as feature in a global sustainable tourism best practice publication in the run up to the World Summit on Sustainable Development 10 year follow up process. 

For further information visit destinet.eu/tools/fol703514/fol588962/travelmoledestinet-sustainable-tourism-awards

Valere Tjolle

Further information:

The award will initially be based on four territorial areas in Europe: Coastal, Urban, Rural, Protected.

In each area interested stakeholders can enter places, products or services in the following categories:

• Most Sustainable and Responsible Carrier
• Most Sustainable and Responsible Accommodation
• Most Sustainable and Responsible Visitor Attraction
• Most Sustainable and Responsible Tour Package
• Most Sustainable and Responsible Destination

Entries will be judged by their contribution to the 12 aims of sustainable tourism, specified with the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria and the EU Destination management/impact assessment procedures.

In addition a "rusty nail award" for destinations or enterprises who are clearly unsustainable may also be given for each category.

To demonstrate that the awards cover the issue of sustainablilty in depth,  a special national award shall be given to ´the country contributing most to peace through tourism".

The ECOTRANS European network for sustainable tourism development and Vision on Sustainable Tourism are currently establishing a list of ambassadors for the awards. They will judging the entries in collaboration with sustainable tourism experts from all European countries, using the DestiNet polling system.

This is how it works:

Step 1: Nomination
VESTAS are inviting all country-level tourism management organisations + more than 50 certificates and awards for sustainable tourism + development NGOs to nominate best practice examples to nominate up to 3 businesses in each category. All nominees will be profiled on a green Sustainable Tourism Map of Europe (http://destinet.ew.eea.europa.eu/portal_map/).

Step 2: Application
You can go to the DestiNet Portal and download the nomination forms. destinet.eu/tools/fol703514/fol588962/travelmoledestinet-sustainable-tourism-awards/VESTAs_Nomination_Form.xls

Step3: Judging the Applicants

VESTAS are inviting 1000 experts across Europe to rate the applications, using the DestiNet polling system. The European network for sustainable tourism development ECOTRANS will serve as the core group of experts, who will be augmented by networks of experts from administrators, universities, certification bodies, and the industry representatives themselves. The highest ratings will then be presented to an international jury. The jury will make a final selection of a top three best practice examples based on the poll results.

For any further information email  [email protected] or gordon.destinet@ecotrans .de

Get free sustainable tourism reports from Vision on Sustainable Tourism HERE

Valere Tjolle is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite: EXTRA SPECIAL OFFER at: www.travelmole.com/stories/1144671.php