The ten day IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona got off to a rocking start today with the announcement of the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC). GSTC is a new criteria based on thousands of best practices culled from the existing standards currently in use around the world, developed to offer a common framework to guide the emerging practice of sustainable tourism.

And this is a big deal, primarily because its sure to be implemented and adopted everywhere that matters. If you look at the organizations and people who are backing up the GSTC, you’ll find that it just about encompasses all the major players in the travel industry and the non-profits who control the debate in the environmental sector.

The criteria were developed by the Partnership for Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC Partnership), a new coalition of 27 organizations that includes tourism leaders from the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. 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).

Additional members of the GSTC Partnership Steering Committee are the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA), American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism (CAST), Choice Hotels, Conde Nast Traveler, Conservation International (CI), ECOTRANS, Expedia, Inc., Federation of Tour Operators (FTO), HM Design, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts, Instituto do Hospitalidade, International Hotel & Restaurant Association (IH&RA), the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Kenyan Ecotourism Society, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (SCBD), Solimar International, Sustainable Travel International (STI), The International Ecotourism Society (TIES), Tourism Concern, Travelocity/Sabre, and VISIT.

In a press statement, Francesco Frangialli, Secretary-General of the UNWTO, said that ”Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries and a strong contributor to sustainable development and poverty alleviation. Over 900 million international tourists travelled last year and UNWTO forecasts 1.6 billion tourists by the year 2020. In order to minimize the negative impacts of this growth, sustainability should translate from words to facts, and be an imperative for all tourism stakeholders. The GSTC initiative will undoubtedly constitute a major reference point for the entire tourism sector and an important step in making sustainability an inherent part of tourism development.” 

And, like I said above, the GSTC was unveiled at the IUCN World Conservation Congress, which by itself gives the criteria a certain weight and reach far beyond what any law or group could hope to provide with marketing, and promotional or educational campaigns. The Congress has got delegations from 177 countries, there’s royalty (including HRH Felipe, Prince of Asturias and HSH Prince Albert of Monaco) present, and politicians and Nobel prize winners. These ten days of the Congress will feature debate by governments, academics, scientists, business leaders, indigenous peoples and philanthropists about how to safeguard the natural world. These are the opinion makers worldwide we’re talking about.

Assuming that all the companies and organizations involved with the GSTC Partnership are already on board, and provided delegates at the Congress are impressed enough to go back home to their countries and start pushing businesses and the government to accept it, this GSTC thing is as good as a done deal.

Posted on October 6th, 2008 by PLing
Filed under: Sustainable Travel