The Partnership for Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC Partnership) is a coalition of more than 30 organizations working together to foster increased understanding of sustainable tourism practices and the adoption of universal sustainable tourism principles. The Partnership was initiated by the Rainforest Alliance, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Foundation, and the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

In October 2008, the GSTC Partnership launched the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria, which have been designed to serve as the minimum requirements any tourism business should aspire to reach in order to protect and sustain the world’s natural and cultural resources while ensuring tourism meets its potential to alleviate poverty.

The baseline criteria are organized around the four pillars of sustainable tourism:
•    Effective sustainability planning;
•    Maximizing social and economic benefits to the local community;
•    Reduction of negative impacts to cultural heritage; and
•    Reduction of negative impacts to environmental heritage.

To develop these Criteria, the partnership consulted with sustainability experts and the tourism industry and reviewed more than 60 existing certification and voluntary sets of criteria already being implemented around the globe. In all, more than 4,500 criteria have been analyzed and the resulting Criteria have received comments from over 2500 stakeholders.

We are now working towards enhancing the relevance, accuracy and credibility of the Criteria and the accompanying tools and platforms necessary for the wide use of the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria as a framework for sustainable tourism. To this end, we are seeking to capture feedback from partners and other stakeholders who have begun to use the GSTC in their tourism work. 

The information you provide will be used to compile case studies highlighting approaches used to adopt the criteria, experiences of using the GSTC, and best practices.  These case studies will be shared with tourism stakeholders to increase their knowledge of the relevance and of the GSTC and the benefits of adoption.  Additionally, your input will be used to develop and refine existing tools for the implementation of the GSTC.  And we may highlight best practices and testimonials on our website and through our press outreach.