The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) is managing the GSTC Criteria, global standards for sustainable travel and tourism; as well as providing international accreditation for sustainable tourism Certification Bodies. The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) establishes and manages global sustainable standards, known as the GSTC Criteria. There are two sets: Destination Criteria for public policy-makers and destination managers, and Industry Criteria for hotels and tour operators. These are the guiding principles and minimum requirements that any tourism business or destination should aspire to reach in order to protect and sustain the world’s natural and cultural resources, while ensuring tourism meets its potential as a tool for conservation and poverty alleviation.
Travelife
Travelife is a leading training, management and certification initiative for tourism companies committed to reaching sustainability.Operating your business in a socially and environmentally friendly manner makes good business sense! Both consumer and business demand for responsible products is growing and the public wants to know how you manage your business.
Companies ready to get to work towards sustainability will, therefore, score better on customer satisfaction, staff motivation and business efficiency with positive effects for their competitive advantage. Sustainability management is all about commitment and consistent sustainable business practices. This includes your products, how you monitor and manage your impacts, and how you support your suppliers on their road to sustainability.Travelife is a fair and affordable system which helps tour operators and travel agencies to manage and improve social and environmental impacts by complying with sustainability criteria. Ultimately, when a company meets the requirements, it will receive a Travelife award.
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Good Tourism Institute
Good tourism is a well balanced combination of running a profitable business and doing good.At Good Tourism Institute,the experience in the sustainable tourism and online marketing sector make the unique synergy to equip Tour Operators to perform better.The goal is to make the industry a better place for its businesses and travellers. This however, can’t be done without taking in mind the planet and its people.
We believe a sustainable tourism industry and making a profit can go hand in hand. You can be thoughtful about the environment, local communities and animal welfare, and run a successful business at the same time.
Our Team has a diversified expertise to bring the best.Anne de Jong is a passionate change maker and fascinated by the tourism industry. Wanting to contribute to a futureproof tourism industry, she supports tour operators and destinations to become more resilient and sustainable.Her main focus lies upon working towards a sustainable and profitable business while making a positive impact on local communities and the environment. She emphasises on making sustainability easier, more accessible and attractive.And Rik van den Brink is an experienced online marketeer. He has been running a successful online marketing agency for around 10 years, where he commits to build better online results for a variety of clients.At the Good Tourism Institute his focus lies upon teaching tour operators about online marketing techniques. He specialises in subjects like search engine optimisation, search engine advertising, social media- and email marketing.
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ICRT
Responsible Tourism is what we do to make tourism more sustainable, it is about how we use tourism to create sustainable development to benefit communities and Destinations. Sustainability is the ambition; Responsible Tourism is about what we do as producers and consumers to realise the aspiration. Too often sustainable is used only in the abstract sense. Responsible Tourism is not the same as sustainable tourism. Responsibility requires that we say what we are doing to make tourism better and that we are transparent about what we achieve. The agenda is broad across the three pillars of economic, social and environmental responsibility a wide range of resources are available. Responsible Tourism is about using tourism to make better places to live in and better places to visit. Overtourism is the opposite, a consequence of a failure to manage tourism sustainably.
Overtourism describes destinations where hosts or guests, locals or visitors, feel that there are too many visitors and that the quality of life in the area or the quality of the experience has deteriorated unacceptably. Often both visitors and guests experience the deterioration concurrently. There are a variety of causes and solutions. Aviation is the Achilles heel of the travel and tourism sector. If you are buying offsets, take care, you may be jeopardising your reputation, particularly if you are selling them to your customers. If something looks too good to be true, it usually is. Carbon offsetting is too good to be true. There is more here about the questions to ask of any carbon offset. It is important to begin now to develop alternative fuels to maintain aviation. Harold Goodwin drafted the Cape Town Declaration in 2002, the founding manifesto of the Responsible Tourism Movement.
