Sustainability certification - the time is now!

2022-01-17T10:09:42Z

"It is renowned that the percentage of tourists that "prefer" eco-friendly experiences and structures is growing. What is also sure, according to several recent surveys, is that is is drastically increased with the covid-related emergency and that after-covid tourism will be more eco-sensitive." writes Elena Gentilini from the CenTOUR project in her article on "SUSTAINABILITY CERTIFICATION IN THE TOURISM SYSTEM - the time is now?"

The article gathered some well informed views from experts involved in European TOURCOOP projects, to highlight what are the added values of Sustainability Certifications today and how this is going to change in the next two years.

Herbert Hamele from the ETGG2030 project points out how Sustainable Tourism certification programs are able to increase market access through:

1. Being known and trusted by the travellers who consider the existence of a certain label in their
decision making for a destination. A good example is the international “Blue Flag” for beaches and
marinas.

2. Being recognised as credible certificate at those market players who market the offer and inform the demand: tour operators, booking services, Regional and National Tourist Boards, media for consumers, sustainable tourism sites, etc. The Tourism2030.eu platform managed by ECOTRANS provides transparency on all 200+ certificates worldwide: on the “Certification Quickfinder” you can filter the global list by country, tourism category, standard and credibility level.

3. Providing their listings of certified tourism businesses to booking services and other intermediaries. Large certification programmes as e.g. the Green Key with 1000’s of certified hotels are meanwhile of interest to big players like booking.com and big tour operators to id entify and mark their bookable products as “green”.

4. Feeding their listings into the common all in one “Green Travel Maps”. This is seen as the way out to bring the green offer closer to the consumer: about 50 leading certification programs publish and update meanwhile their listings on the global and public Green Travel Maps on the independent Tourism2030.eu platform with currently more than 16,000 certified accommodation providers and camping sites, attractions, tour operators and destinations.

Download the article here

Tourism2030 - January

Sustainability certification - the time is now!