The International Conference Azores 2017: Towards Sustainable Tourism was held in Lagoa, Azores, Portugal, on 5-6 December 2017.
GSTC was among the international tourism organizations that have participated as speakers. Luigi Cabrini, GSTC Chair, gave a Keynote Address on «Tourism Trends and the Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s Criteria for Sustainable Destinations». Kathleen Pessolano, GSTC Strategic Partnerships and Destinations Director gave a presentation about the GSTC Destinations Criteria and global trends in destination management.
Other speakers included: Christopher Imbsen of UNWTO, Lorenzo Ocampo of Huatulco, Ixtapa & Nuevo Vallarta (destinations certified by EarthCheck, the only GSTC-Accredited Certification Body for destinations), David Simmons of Lincoln University, as well as entrepreneurs and leaders from the Azores and throughout Portugal.
The Conference was co-organized by Joana Borges Coutinno of Sustain Azores, and Daniel Frey of Green Growth, a GSTC Member, who has supported the Azores in using the GSTC Criteria to evaluate and assess their current status of compliance and benchmarking against the GSTC Criteria.
