9 New: Certification & Marketing -EDITED-intro published
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Certification is a formalized but voluntary process for supporting organizations and businesses to implement sustainable tourism practices. Certification labels enhance a more transparent and generally comprehensible designation of sustainable tourism products and therefore help travelers as well as business partners along the tourism supply chain to get a better orientation. Certificates are also recognized as marketing instruments. They may help consumers in their decision making efforts. The main benefits for businesses are cost savings, a capacity building process through education and knowledge, the implementation of an effective management system, increased employee motivation, as well as improved quality and sustainability standards.
Certification, when based on transparent, objective and measureable procedures, provides a reliable basis for identifying tourism businesses and destinations and their products and services that meet sustainability criteria. It provides guidance for travellers and other purchasers to encourage sustainable consumption patterns and green purchasing. It gives a checklist and targets for businesses to work towards when creating sustainable products and services and supply chains, and is used to improve innovation and market access. Therefore the marketing and branding of certified tourism has become an important feature of sustainable tourism development.
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Role of Stakeholders Currently, the situation of sustainable tourism certification schemes is characterized by a large scope and at the same time by complexity. Therefore, a set of global sustainable tourism criteria (see the GSTC standards) have been collectively formulated and recognized by both industry and government as a good guidance to stakeholders on how to best implement sustainable and responsible tourism certification. |
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Governmental bodies can support voluntary certification through clear policies, legislation, and funding. They can ensure the credibility and independence of certification schemes and promote sustainable tourism products in tailor-made marketing programs. |
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NGOs are experts in different dimensions of sustainable tourism and can represent environmental, social, cultural and economic interests in the design and operation of certification schemes. They can provide advice to different stakeholders within the certification process. |
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Research and education institutions contribute to the development, evaluation, and impact assessment of certificates. Furthermore, investigating the tourists’ behavior and decision making will help to promote sustainable tourism products. Universities and tourism schools can integrate the training on certification, sustainability assessment tools and standards in their curricula. |
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Tourism destinations usually consist of individual tourism enterprises, which are coordinated and marketed by a destination management organization (DMO). While the DMO can adopt sustainable practices in its own organization, it can also establish and maintain a stakeholder network, which is responsible for stimulating and encouraging tourism businesses to adopt sustainable tourism practices, as well as to ensure that the destination develops and operates in a sustainable manner. |
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All tourism businesses along the supply chain (transport, accommodation, catering, activities, visitor attractions, travel packaging and selling) can obtain an adequate certification to improve their sustainability performance. In order to identify the essential sustainability issues in one’s own company, the set-up of a stakeholder dialogue is essential. Certificates are valuable promotion tools in this sense. |
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Certificates and certified businesses provide travelers with reliable information about the sustainability performance of tourism businesses and products. Despite an increasing interest in sustainable tourism, the demand for certified tourism products remains low. Tourists should not only attribute the social responsibility to tourism providers but also to themselves and choose sustainable holidays. By reporting their experiences, travelers contribute to transparency, give orientation to other travelers and valuable feedback to tourism businesses, marketing organizations, and certification bodies. |
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