Tourism information portal celebrates 25 years

Destinet’s aim is to provide transparency in sustainable tourism

When 25 years ago the first Eco-labels for tourism were awarded to the Austrian Kleinwalsertal ("Silver thistle"), in Germany ("Blue Swallow") and in Europe ("Blue Flag"), the concept of sustainable tourism" was not on everybody’s lips yet, however, the development targets of an environmentally-friendly, socially responsible and economical sensible travel were already fiercely discussed.

Important progress was made by the international initiative "Tourism with insight and understanding" between 1987-1992 at ITB Berlin with concrete demands on tourism companies, travel businesses and destinations.

Today more than 100 different ecological labels and sustainability certificates are awarded to tourism businesses worldwide, most of them at national level for hotels and restaurants, approximately half of them in Europe.

The labels with a main focus on the environment still account for a majority, however, newer certificates and those in Latin America, Africa or Asia also put social, cultural and economic requirements in the support of sustainable development.

The questions remain: Which of these certificates are really good? How can they be distinguished? And above all: How can they actually move the market?

In 2000 about 30 experts gathered to this end for the first time in Mohonk/New York and agreed on the common aim to develop a global minimum standard for sustainable tourism in order to use it as a basis for the international recognition of certificates.

The "Global Sustainable Tourism Council" arose from this initiative, supported by more than 100 governmental and non-governmental organizations, tourism associations and other stakeholders. An independent professional committee verifies on the basis of the "Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria" and the ISO norm 17065 for independent certification the criteria catalogues and verification procedures of existing labels.

Currently, the standards of about 15 certificates for sustainable tourism are GSTC recognized. 

The approval of standards and certificates by the GSTC is an important market orientation, but tour operators and travel agencies, tourism businesses and destinations, marketing organizations and professionals need more information regarding transparency, credibility and sustainability:

• Who is behind these labels?

• What specifically does the criteria catalogue require from the certified hotels and travel offers?

• How reliable is the verification procedure?

• Which sustainability areas are covered by the label?

• Which standard is (not yet) "GSTC recognized"?

• What are the labels particular strengths?

• Which businesses and services are certified and where can I find them?

This gap is being closed by the independent knowledge portal DestiNet.eu. DestiNet is a UN-registered "Partnership for Sustainable Development", supported by the European Environment Agency EEA, the World Tourism Organization UNWTO, the United Nations Environment Programme UNEP, and managed by ECOTRANS. The global database currently comprises around 130 certificates for sustainable tourism, the 50 most important with detailed information on the above issues.

It is not easy to find the better choice of environmentally friendly and socially responsible products: however the global Green Market Place Atlas on DestiNet has 2000 certified products and services already published, more will follow.

Further information at: http://destinet.eu/

Valere Tjolle

The Tourism and Greenwash Report is still available at a discount – it gives  a full analysis of over 100 certification schemes: http://www.totemtourism.com/sustainable-tourism-reports-and-masterclasses.html