• 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 United Nations Foundation, the Rainforest Alliance, the United Nations Environment Programme, the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the United Nations World Tourism Organization, and ECOTRANS, with the technical assistance of Solimar International, 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 main product of this effort was the development of a baseline of international criteria for sustainable tourism, developed from the bottom-up by using as inputs the sustainability requirements that are already being assessed around the globe by all participating initiatives.  

This baseline set of criteria and indicators was intended to meet the double objectives of providing, for the first time, a common set of criteria that would facilitate the harmonization and accreditation of certification systems, codes of conduct, and sets of best practices around the globe.  At the same time, it would provide an opportunity for travel purchasers, the media, and other interested parties to understand and determine what hotels and tour operators have sustainable business practices.

In order to reinforce the credibility of the proposed criteria, the partners have initiatied consultative process with leading sustainable tourism experts, the private sector tourism communities, as well as the general public.

Learn more about:

• Consultation to date
• Industry Consultation
• Public Consultation