Many GSTC members and stakeholders seek GSTC’s views on Travalyst’s recent publication of their “certification”-based accommodations initiative. They appreciate that in 2016 GSTC launched the first and still-only tourism-based accreditation service for placing marks on certification bodies that provide solid evidence of competence, rigor, and impartiality. This statement is provided in response to that interest in our views on the matter.

We appreciate the goals and good intentions of the Travalyst accommodations program to provide useful information to travelers and businesses to identify those accommodation providers that are taking meaningful steps to operate more sustainably. At the same time, we are not comfortable with a program that treats all marks the same, because in our extensive work in viewing global approaches to verification of sustainability claims in hospitality, we see widely divergent levels of rigor in labeling schemes.

The Label Jungle

The hospitality industry and the broader travel and tourism industry have long ignored the application of the norms other sectors use to define and recognize certification for sustainability. They have left the door open to a plethora of labels, and we believe that the term “certification” is used much too loosely in the hospitality sector. The normal approach industries take is to require procedures and systems established by ISO, the International Standards Organization, providing guidance on good certification and valuing accreditation of certification bodies. Travalyst has now chosen to accept virtually any entity that calls itself a “Certification Body” with what we consider only a cursory review of those programs.

Further, without any sort of ranking system, the current Travalyst approach treats the myriad forms of verification as equals. However, those programs vary considerably in quality. While audits are required, there are tremendous variations in these auditing processes; ”audits” can be short and simple or deep and effective, with or without on-site audits. No-one can know the level of audit rigor achieved without an external review of each auditing body. Only an external review can validate the claims of a quality audit process, one that gathers hard evidence of auditor qualifications, auditor procedural requirements, audit process requirements, certification decision-makers independent from the auditors to ensure impartiality, and more. The formal process of doing that by a credible organization is known as accreditation.

We suggest that Travalyst and organizations with similar aims and challenges consider the following.

The Case for Accreditation

Other sectors greatly value the role of accreditation for good certification of safety, health, sustainability, and other attributes. In many countries regulators require accreditation of certification. There is a prevalent misunderstanding in our sector that accreditation is a synonym for certification. The two are NOT synonymous.

Accreditation is a process that provides an external review and mark on a Certification Body. The value of that has been largely ignored by the international sustainable tourism community. By not encouraging or requiring accreditation (external review of the Certification Body), the industry tolerates an unreasonably wide-open door to inferior verification systems masquerading as quality certification.

GSTC is not alone in this view. For example, the World Bank has published guidance for national certification schemes that clearly identifies the use of accreditation of certification as an indicator of scheme quality: “Hence, for certification bodies, accreditation can be seen as an enhancement of their credibility” (pp 127-128, Comprehensive Diagnostic Tool: Annex to the Quality Infrastructure Toolkit, World Bank). Several national programs for sustainable tourism businesses are based on GSTC accreditation and others are studying and considering that approach.

A Stepwise Program to Drive Sustainability at Scale

In addition to accreditation, there are other means of categorizing verification schemes. A few categories for the level of rigor in verification schemes could be applied, whereby hotels are categorized by the level of verification they have received.

Categorizing the verification level received by a hotel would make for a reasonable description of a hotel’s current stage on their journey to sustainability. Presenting a step-wise program that recognizes the higher levels as aspirations lends clarity to a hotel using a lower-level program as a starting point, and then working their way up a ladder.

An Eye Toward Regulatory Pressures

Of course, such a stepwise system would need to be acceptable to regulators throughout the world, for consumer protections on sustainability claims as well as environmental and social regulations. Each of those potential regulatory issues must be addressed by programs categorizing businesses and their external verification systems.

GSTC’s program has already gained formal support and even mandates from several countries. The hospitality industry is rightly concerned about EU regulations – current requirements such as the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, plus the final requirements of the future EU Green Claims Directive. A ranking system based on the degree and quality of external review could indicate which businesses gained marks from what level of external review, without labeling them as “green” or “sustainable”. Those various current and future requirements on environmental and social performance plus how sustainability practices are communicated may not be addressed by a single verification system.

Regardless of precise regulations in one or more countries, there is a place for global systems that place a mark on a hotel working holistically as guided by the SDGs and the GSTC Criteria.

Clarity and Consistency

We call upon the entire travel and tourism industry to cease a long-standing habit of accepting and using any entity that calls itself a Certification Body without a critical review of the rigor, competence, and impartiality of its audit processes and certification decisions. Failing that, the door remains open for even more labels to join the already crowded and confused jungle of labels. A lack of coordinated industry action allowed this to develop; only when industry leaders join hands can a solution come to be.

GSTC stands ready to leverage our knowledge and experience in developing our accreditation service and working with countless governments and businesses to develop coherent programs in supporting an industry-wide initiative that seeks common approaches to these matters.

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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.

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.

To become 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.

GSTC Market Access Program

The existing GSTC Market Access Program has been encouraging OTAs to improve user experience by incorporating visual indicators, such as icons, in their search results to highlight certified accommodations. This approach provides travelers with access to sustainable choices and enhancing market benefits for certified sustainable businesses in the hospitality sector.

Key Elements of the Program

  • Collaboration with OTAs: The program encourages OTAs to improve user experience by incorporating visual indicators, such as icons, in their search results to highlight certified accommodations. This approach aims to provide travelers with transparent access to sustainable choices.

    Partial list of GSTC Market Access Program participating partners:

    • OTAs: Booking.com (including Agoda, Kayak, Priceline); EcoHotels, Hotelbeds, Tablet Hotels (Michelin Guides), Hostelworld, Traveloka, MakeMyTrip, and more.
    • Airlines with TO Platform: EasyJet Holidays, Jet2Holidays, Transat, and more to be announced soon.
    • Business Travel Providers: AMEX GBT, BCD Travel, Advito, CWT, HRS Group, among others.
  • Accredited Certification: Only hotels certified by GSTC-Accredited Certification Bodies are eligible for the program, ensuring credibility through third-party verification. This accreditation process involves rigorous scrutiny to maintain compliance with international standards.
  • Temporary Inclusion Filter: To address the current limited number of certified properties, GSTC allows temporary inclusion of accommodations verified to GSTC-Recognized Standards. GSTC-Recognized Standards refer to sustainable tourism standards that incorporate the four pillars of sustainable tourism described in the GSTC Criteria, thus considered equivalent to the GSTC Criteria, ensuring a consistent approach to sustainable practices.
  • Market Visibility: The program actively promotes certified hotels through leading OTAs, enhancing their visibility in the market. Regular updates on certified properties are provided to OTA partners to facilitate this promotion.

Overall, the GSTC Market Access Program is designed to foster sustainable tourism practices by connecting certified businesses with a broader audience, thereby promoting transparency and credibility in the hospitality sector.

Out of the 49 in the Travalyst list, 22 participate in the GSTC Market Access Program. Additional 3 use standards based on the GSTC Criteria that have not gone through a formal review process. The WTTC Hotel Sustainability Basics is also based on the GSTC Criteria.

More details about the GSTC Market Access Program.

About the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (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.

The Global Sustainable Tourism Council was formed by the United Nations system (UNEP, UNWTO, UN Foundation) along with a coalition of leading organizations from the public sector, private sector, and non-governmental sector. 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.