World Standards Day, celebrated worldwide on October 14th, recognizes the significance of standards-related efforts and pays tribute to the collaborative work of individuals and organizations dedicated to developing voluntary standards. The day serves to highlight the crucial role standardization plays in the global economy, raising awareness among regulators, industries, and consumers about its impact and importance.
Importance of Standards
The GSTC Criteria are the global standards for sustainable travel and tourism. They were developed as a result of a worldwide effort to create a common language about sustainability in tourism.
Like other global standards, the GSTC Criteria were developed within an open process that gives all stakeholders, including consumers, the opportunity to express their views and have those views considered. This has contributed to fairness and market relevance, and promotes confidence in using the GSTC Criteria.
The GSTC Criteria are closely aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), addressing economic, environmental, and social aspects. The criteria offer valuable guidance to tackle sustainability challenges, supporting the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 SDGs.
Certification is a crucial aspect of implementing standards, involving third-party assessments to ensure compliance with the standards. While GSTC does not conduct certifications directly, it accredits Certification Bodies that certify tourism-related entities.
GSTC Accreditation is a mark of quality that GSTC places on certification bodies that choose our independent and neutral process to verify that they certify businesses, such as hotels, tour operators, or destinations, in a competent and neutral manner. GSTC looks very hard at the CB’s certification process to ensure that they issue certifications based on merit and neutrality.
“Accreditation in the hospitality and tourism industry deserves much greater importance. We believe that accreditation enhances both credibility and transparency, while also opening up greater market access for tourism companies committed to sustainability.” – Randy Durband, GSTC CEO.
Accreditation signifies that the CBs adhere to rigorous standards of impartiality and competence in assessing sustainability practices.
Developing International Standards – the GSTC Criteria
The GSTC Criteria serve as the global standard for sustainability in travel and tourism. The three sets of Criteria, GSTC Industry Criteria, GSTC Destination Criteria, and GSTC MICE Criteria, are used for education and awareness-raising, policy-making for businesses and government agencies and other organization types, measurement and evaluation, and act as a basis for certification.
The Criteria are the result of a worldwide effort to develop a common language about sustainability in tourism. They are aligned with SDGs and based on the four pillars of sustainability: (1) Sustainable management; (2) Socioeconomic impacts; (3) Cultural impacts; (4) Environmental impacts (including consumption of resources, reducing pollution, and conserving biodiversity and landscapes).
The GSTC Criteria is developed based on GSTC Standard Setting Manual v3.0, which is intended to comply with ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Sustainability Systems.
The GSTC Criteria have been built on decades of prior work and experience around the world, and they take into account the numerous guidelines and standards for sustainable tourism from every continent. During the process of development, they were widely consulted throughout the globe, in both developed and developing countries, in several languages. They reflect our goal of attaining a global consensus on sustainable tourism.
Development of new Criteria Sets: GSTC Attraction Criteria and new set for tourism food service providers
The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) announced last April 2023, the development of GSTC Attraction Criteria, with support from the Singapore Tourism Board STB, which aims to serve as the global sustainability standards for the attraction industry. The set will be launched November 2024.
GSTC announced last August 2024, that with support from the Türkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency (TGA), is further developing the GSTC Criteria, with a new set for tourism food service providers (official name to be determined during the development process). This new set of GSTC Criteria will serve as the industry’s global sustainability standards for tourism-related food service providers.
Global Impact of GSTC Criteria
The Criteria are the minimum, not the maximum, which businesses, governments, and destinations should achieve to approach social, environmental, cultural, and economic sustainability. Since tourism destinations each have their own culture, environment, customs, and laws, the Criteria are designed to be adapted to local conditions and supplemented by additional criteria for the specific location and activity.
Intended impacts and outcome
- Provide guidelines for businesses and destinations of all sizes and all over the world to become more sustainable.
- Provide guidance for travelers and travel providers in choosing suppliers and sustainable tourism programs.
- Provide a common denominator for media to recognize sustainable tourism providers.
- Help certification and other voluntary programs ensure that their standards meet a broadly accepted baseline.
- Governmental, non-governmental and private sector programs have a framework for developing sustainable tourism requirements.
- Provide guidelines for education and training bodies such as hotel schools and universities.
GSTC Accreditation
Certification represents a written assurance by a third party of the conformity of a product, process or service to specified requirements. Accreditation, on the other hand, is the formal recognition by an authoritative body of an entity’s competence to work to specified standards.
GSTC does not conduct certification. That is the job of the many Certification Bodies (CBs) throughout the world; GSTC accredit those that certify.
To become GSTC-Accredited, certification bodies are required to fulfill the requirements set out in the GSTC Accreditation Manual. For example: Legislation; Documented rules and policies for the application of the reference standard; Transparent and impartial certification procedure; Competent personnel capable of conformity assessment in the sustainable tourism field; Compliance with the ‘ISO/IEC 17065:2012 Conformity Assessment Requirements for Bodies Certifying Products, Processes, and Services’; and more.
Learn more about GSTC Accreditation.
About GSTC
The Global Sustainable Tourism Council® (GSTC®) establishes and manages global sustainable standards, known as the GSTC Criteria. There are three sets: Destination Criteria for public policy-makers and destination managers, Industry Criteria for Hotels and Tour Operators, and MICE Criteria for Venues, Event Organizers, and Events & Exhibitions. These are the guiding principles and minimum requirements that any tourism business or destination should aspire to reach in order to protect and sustain the world’s natural and cultural resources while ensuring tourism meets its potential as a tool for conservation and poverty alleviation.
The GSTC Criteria form the foundation for GSTC’s assurance role for Certification Bodies that certify hotels/accommodations, tour operators, and destinations as having sustainable policies and practices in place. GSTC does not directly certify any products or services, but provides accreditation to those that do.
GSTC is an independent and neutral USA-registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization that represents a diverse and global membership, including national and provincial governments, leading travel companies, hotels, tour operators, NGOs, individuals and communities – all striving to achieve best practices in sustainable tourism. The GSTC is an ISEAL Community Member, a global membership organization for ambitious, collaborative, and transparent sustainability systems.
Information for media and the press: www.gstcouncil.org/about/for-the-press/
