Criteria, Standards & Ecolabels for Sustainable Tourism

Travellers are already looking for tourism services associated with low negative environmental impacts and with high social and economic benefits. Although not a mainstream segment, responsible travelling is expanding. Maybe a "temporary trend", some pessimists will say; maybe a "signal for the market future" some optimists will reply. In any case all stakeholders of the tourism value chain have a collective responsibility to support and mainstream this positive trend or market signal.

As many studies suggest it is very important to build confidence for sustainable tourism products and services among the consumers. But before doing that it is very important to develop trustworthy tourism products and services that will reflect a practical approach for sustainable development. The implementation of sustainability criteria, standards and certification schemes for sustainable tourism are mechanisms that have a very big potential to help tourism business developing these trustworthy products and services and signal them to the demand side.

Today, around the world, there are hundreds of certification systems and best practices that define sustainable tourism. Recognizing and considering that:

• Tourism companies are seeking advice on identifying internationally recognized sustainable tourism criteria to launch their initiatives based on solid sustainability requirements
  
  
• Consumers are becoming more and more conscious about the environmental and social impacts of their purchasing decisions and are turning towards products that can assure their sustainability
  
  
• New and emerging voluntary sustainable tourism initiatives are seeking advice on baseline sustainable tourism requirements that they can use as a point of start in developing their own programs
  
  
• Numerous sustainable tourism certification, fair trade and ecolabeling programs are requesting support in identifying their common sustainability requirements to enable mutual recognition and reciprocity among programs
  
  
• Tourism associations and private enterprises are seeking advice on how to select credible sustainable tourism certification programs that certify compliance with internationally agreed upon sustainability requirements
  
  
• Tourism Internet companies and tour operators are seeking advice on identifying programs that fulfill internationally agreed upon sustainability requirements
  
  
• Governmental agencies are developing sustainability policy and need support in identifying sustainability requirements to bring such policies into practice.

The UNEP, the United Nations Foundation, the Rainforest Alliance, the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the United Nations World Tourism Organization, and ECOTRANS, partnered to develop the Sustainable Tourism Criteria initiative to compare sustainability requirements from 40+ certification, ecolabeling, best practice, codes of conduct as well as other international guidelines (such as UNWTO-UNEP's 12 aims of sustainable tourism and recommendations for sustainable tourism certification, CBD guidelines and others) with the purpose of identifying common sustainable tourism requirements from initiatives across the world. The initiative, has been designed as a way to bring together -for the first time- a globally relevant set of sustainability criteria for the hotel and tour operator sectors. Through this common understanding of what sustainable tourism really means, the travel industry, media, governments, and consumers will be better positioned to differentiate, recognize, promote and support sustainable tourism products and services.

Visit the Sustainable Tourism Criteria initiative web site.

UNEP is also participating in the Steering Committee of the Sustainable Tourism Stewardship Council (STSC). The STSC is a proposed global accreditation body for sustainable tourism and ecotourism certification programs. STSC responds to the market demand to have international, comparable standards to identify and purchase sustainable holidays and to minimize false claims. Visit the STSC web site.