Green Destinations: network of areas
At the international tourism fair (ITB) in Berlin, in March 2014, a number of sustainable tourism destination networks convened to launch the VISTAS Awards for Good Practice in destinations. Award winning destinations had been nominated by the DestiNet Innovation Group (DIG), ECOTRANS, EUCC’s QualityCoast, the EDEN Network and Alpine Pearls in partnership with VISION on Sustainable Tourism and Travelmole. It was proposed to use “Green Destinations” as the common name for the global network of the most sustainable tourism destinations, that use the GSTR to make their quality and sustainability transparent to the public.
In this sense, we define the term “Green Destination” as a tourism destination (city, town, island, National Park, resort area etc.) that –
- in general stands out well above the average;
- is sufficiently green or sustainable through the eyes of a visitor;
- has a sustainable tourism policy of sufficient quality in relation to the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria for Destinations (GSTC-D).
Destinations that have received a QualityCoast or QualityDestination Award can automatically be seen as a Green Destination, like any other destination certified through a GSTC-D compliant programme.
Green Destinations: initiative for sustainability
The initiative to establish Green Destinations as an organisation was taken by Albert Salman, to provide an organisational platform for the brand “Green Destinations”. Albert is developing Green Destinations in partnership with Suzanne van der Veeken. More on the Green Destinations Team here
Green Destinations provides a global platform for ambitious destinations eager to improve their quality and sustainability, from their own strengths, in a measurable and transparent way.