Considering sustainable tourism certification? What to do first and what to look for

Some­times the first step is the hard­est. This applies as much to the daunt­ing task of obtain­ing sus­tain­able tour­ism cer­ti­fic­a­tion as any­thing else; espe­cially for micro and small busi­nesses that can­not afford to throw resources at a new depart­ment or employ­ee to man­age it. 

Kev­in Phun offers his advice in this “Good Tour­ism” Insight. [You too can share a “GT” Insight.]

Do you need sustainable tourism certification?

Sus­tain­able tour­ism cer­ti­fic­a­tion is accel­er­at­ing among travel & tour­ism busi­nesses here in Asia. And, as sup­ply chain part­ners and pro­spect­ive cus­tom­ers glob­ally seek out cred­ibly-cer­ti­fied travel & tour­ism part­ners and products, it is import­ant not to be left behind. 

Sus­tain­ab­il­ity cer­ti­fic­a­tion refers to the pro­cess by which organ­isa­tions sub­ject them­selves to often rig­or­ous audits of their oper­a­tions using pre­defined cri­ter­ia which are recog­nised by industry peers and, in some cases, governments. 

The cri­ter­ia often cov­er a range of areas from social respons­ib­il­ity to envir­on­ment­al impacts, waste man­age­ment, eth­ic­al prac­tices, et cet­era. Think ESG (envir­on­ment­al, social, and gov­ernance) issues.

Partly driv­en by the increas­ingly com­mon require­ment for sus­tain­ab­il­ity and ESG com­pon­ents in RFPs (requests for pro­pos­al), many tour­ism busi­nesses are find­ing them­selves in an inter­est­ing position. 

While some founders may feel that they already run the most sus­tain­able tour­ism or hos­pit­al­ity busi­ness they know — and since long before it was fash­ion­able to do so — it will be easi­er for them to con­vince decision makers if they can point to a certificate.

The ques­tions that there­fore fol­low include: How can I get cer­ti­fied? How do I get star­ted on sus­tain­able tour­ism cer­ti­fic­a­tion? And which sus­tain­able tour­ism cer­ti­fic­a­tion is most suit­able for my organisation?

Related “GT” Part­ner news: For a sus­tain­able Singa­pore, Green Des­tin­a­tions’ region­al lead picks CRTS

Con­tents ^

Assemble a sustainable tourism certification team

First, assemble a sus­tain­ab­il­ity team. It does not have to be big; two or three can be a good start, rep­res­ent­ing dif­fer­ent parts of the organisation.

And appoint a team lead­er. This does not have to be the big boss; even if the big boss is you! The lead will ideally have some form­al edu­ca­tion or work exper­i­ence in sus­tain­ab­il­ity. If not, the lead could be someone who is famil­i­ar with sus­tain­able prac­tices and sus­tain­ab­il­ity trends, or at least has an act­ive interest in sus­tain­able tourism.

Related “GT” Insight by Kev­in Phun: Why sus­tain­ab­il­ity cer­ti­fic­a­tion is a pro­cess or jour­ney, not a destination

Con­tents ^

Sort through the sustainable tourism certification options …

The team lead­er should recog­nise that out of the many sus­tain­able tour­ism cer­ti­fic­a­tion labels out there, not all of them will be suit­able. Remem­ber, what is good may not be best. And some may not be very good at all. 

Sort­ing through the options is import­ant. What to look out for:

Relevance

Down­load a few sample sus­tain­ab­il­ity stand­ards from vari­ous sus­tain­able tour­ism cer­ti­fic­a­tion brands most rel­ev­ant to your sec­tor and/or loc­a­tion. There are quite a few out there. 

Look at what is covered in the cri­ter­ia and dis­cuss as a sus­tain­ab­il­ity team how far the company’s oper­a­tions are from the criteria.

Recognition

Obvi­ously you will want to choose a sus­tain­able tour­ism cer­ti­fic­a­tion label that is recog­nised by the industry and/or pro­spect­ive cus­tom­ers in the places you oper­ate and sell. 

Get your sup­ply chain part­ners involved. Talk to your sup­pli­ers and cus­tom­ers if you can. This is going to take some time, per­haps weeks, but it is essential. 

And if your gov­ern­ment offers grant fund­ing, you will want to choose a label that it recog­nises. Find out. Talk to an appro­pri­ate official.

Support

If the sus­tain­able tour­ism cer­ti­fic­a­tion stand­ards are very high, you will want to choose a label that can sup­port you tech­nic­ally; a brand with a region­al if not loc­al pres­ence that can help you through the pro­cess with advice and tech­nic­al assistance.

Network

Ideally, the com­pany behind your sus­tain­able tour­ism cer­ti­fic­a­tion will organ­ise ongo­ing activ­it­ies and events loc­ally and region­ally to help build your net­work of like-minded people — includ­ing pro­spect­ive sup­pli­ers and cus­tom­ers — as well as boost your capa­city to strive for even high­er stand­ards. Your busi­ness will bene­fit from that.

Con­tents ^

… before you commit

DO NOT com­mit to any sus­tain­able tour­ism cer­ti­fic­a­tion pro­cess before you have looked at a few stand­ards and their cri­ter­ia and assessed them for their suit­ab­il­ity, cred­ib­il­ity, and abil­ity to sup­port you dur­ing and after the pro­cess. This mis­take could cost you a lot of time and money, and leave your staff feel­ing disillusioned.

Once you have chosen your team and which path to take, your sus­tain­able tour­ism cer­ti­fic­a­tion jour­ney can begin.

What do you think? 

Share your own thoughts about the whys and whats and hows of sus­tain­able tour­ism cer­ti­fic­a­tion in a com­ment below. 

(SIGN IN or REGISTER first. After sign­ing in you will need to refresh this page to see the com­ments section.)

Or write a “GT” Insight or “GT” Insight Bite of your own. The “Good Tour­ism” Blog wel­comes diversity of opin­ion and per­spect­ive about travel & tour­ism, because travel & tour­ism is everyone’s business.

“GT” doesn’t judge. “GT” pub­lishes. “GT” is where free thought travels.

If you think the tour­ism media land­scape is bet­ter with “GT” in it, then please …

About the author

Kev­in Phun is a spe­cial­ist in respons­ible tour­ism who com­bines tour­ism and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment know­ledge and expert­ise. He is the founder of the Centre for Respons­ible Tour­ism Singa­pore (CRTS).

Kev­in knows a thing or two about sus­tain­able tour­ism cer­ti­fic­a­tion. CRTS is Green Des­tin­a­tions’ offi­cial coun­try rep­res­ent­at­ive in Singa­pore for their Good Travel Program.

Featured image (top of post)

Con­sid­er­ing sus­tain­able tour­ism cer­ti­fic­a­tion? What to do first and what to look for. Made with an image by Chris­tophe (CC0) via Pixabay.

Top ^