Geographical coverage

The geographical spread of tourism certification varies greatly with Europe having the largest number of programs. The following review demonstrates the need for rationalization of these programs in different regions.

Europe

According to the WTO (2002) study on voluntary initiatives, more than fifty certification and labeling programs operate in Europe. This multiplicity of programs has created a need for finding ways to increase communication, coordination and mutual recognition among programs. For example, VISIT is a European Commission-funded project that aims to provide a networking platform for collaboration among European tourism certification programs. VISIT demonstrates how these programs can be an effective instrument in moving the European tourism industry and consumers towards sustainability. To reach its goal, VISIT has four interrelated objectives (VISIT, 2002):

1. To demonstrate how broadly accepted environmental indicators (not social and economic ones) and benchmarks for tourism certification programs (accommodation and destinations) can contribute to an assessment of environmental effects of various ecolabels and other instruments.

2. To demonstrate how a partnership of tourism certification programs can be achieved, lead to common standards and contribute to increased transparency, quality, and joint promotion.

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3. To demonstrate how labeled enterprises (specially small and medium sized enterprises) and products can be integrated into European tourism offers by information and matching activities towards the tourism industry.

4. To demonstrate how consumer awareness and demand for environmentally friendly tourism be increased by implementation of a European image campaign during both 2002 (the “International Year of Ecotourism”) and 2003.

The VISIT image is based on the word visit. It has no unique logo; rather the ten logos of the ecolabels that are part of VISIT are all used. These are the Austrian national label, Blue Flag, Green Globe 21, Green Key (Denmark), Green Keys (France), Green Tourism Business Scheme (Scotland), Legambiente (Italy), Luxembourg Tourism Certification program, Milieubarometer (Holland), and Nordic Swan (Scandinavia). While it was decided not to have a new, all-embracing VISIT logo so as not to supersede the existing logos, the resulting image of VISIT is confusing, and therefore not suitable for a global system. The experience of VISIT is key to the feasibility study of STSC since this provides a testing ground for many concepts. At the same time, the STSC proposals are important to put the VISIT work in a global context. To this effect VISIT and the STSC project team signed a cooperation contract for collaboration and sharing information.

Besides VISIT, the European Union Ecolabelling Management Board has been working for several years on developing a European standard on environmental management for tourism accommodations. This label is to be implemented by the current twenty-five members of the European Union.

Central and South America

In Central America there is an intergovernmental agreement to expand the Costa Rican CST program to other countries in the region, including the Caribbean. CST is rapidly becoming a truly regional program with governmental support throughout the Americas.

In September 2001, a workshop took place to discuss the regionalization of the CST throughout Central America, under the SITCA (System of Tourism Integration in Central America). Central American tourism ministries signed up to introduce CST, and they agreed and signed proposals for the development of multi-stakeholder, national certification commissions, autonomous to each country but with commonalities (anon, 2001a; 2001b, 2001c). These national certification commissions needed to roll out CST programs in each country were scheduled to be under way by early 2002. However, due to limited resources these commissions have not been established. As of December 2002, CST continues to be applied only in Costa Rica.

In September 2001, at the First Iberoamerican Meeting of Tourism Ministers held in Cusco, Peru), ministers from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Dominican Republic, Uruguay, and Venezuela signed an agreement to adopt standardized principles and parameters, similar to the CST, for economic, environmental, social, and cultural sustainability. At this meeting, the Costa Rican Minister of Tourism presented a paper suggesting that “the fundamental idea is to develop a system of accreditation internationally recognized as the only instrument of certification that can be available to all the countries in the region at the lowest cost possible and with the maximum level of credibility” (Niehaus Bonilla, 2001).

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The support for CST throughout the Americas was strengthened at the Third Summit of Heads of State and/or Government of the Association of Caribbean States, held in Margarita, Venezuela, in December 2001 (anon, 2001b). An Action Plan based on the Declaration of Margarita states that sustainable tourism should, amongst others, establish a mechanism for the delivery of technical assistance, with the aim of meeting the requirements of the criteria established for incorporation in the Zone of Sustainable Tourism in the Caribbean (ZTSC). Again, it was agreed that these criteria would be similar to the CST.

In recent months, other Latin American countries outside Central America, like Peru, Ecuador and Mexico, have demonstrated interest in utilizing the CST. In October 2002, the Ecuadorian Minister of Tourism signed a cooperation agreement with the Costa Rican Minister of Tourism. Part of this agreement entails the use of CST.

Asia Pacific

At an Asia-Pacific level, Australia and New Zealand have commenced promoting the Green Globe program, and have secured government support in financial terms to do so. Green Globe 21 has also opened an office in China and is active throughout other parts of the Pacific region. Green Globe 21 and NEAP have formed an alliance to promote ecotourism certification and in 2002, Green Globe and NEAP jointly launched a new International Ecotourism Standard, based on a modified version of NEAP’s ecotourism criteria. This new program also offers considerable technical support to those seeking certification. Green Globe Asia-Pacific officials say that they expect other countries in the region to benefit from belonging to this program, rather than developing their own programs.

Africa

At this point there is no program that covers the African continent. Several countries, including Kenya, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, have conducted preliminary activities to determine the feasibility of establishing tourism certification programs. They have received positive feedback, and the program of the Ecotourism Society of Kenya (ESOK) is currently being readied for launch. The South African government has been developing a Responsible Tourism Guidelines that do not at present involve certification. But these guidelines do recognize that certification can play a role in promoting sustainable tourism in that country. The Fair Trade in Tourism Network initiative, under the auspices of Tourism Concern, has made a difference in the region but since the project has run out of funds, only the Fair Trade Tourism South Africa program seems to be active.

Arab League

The Via Nova Group, and in cooperation with environmental and tourism NGO's, tourism companies, and governmental agencies are discussing the possibilities of creating a regional sustainable tourism certification program that would include all related stakeholders. The Via Nova Group was established in 2002 by specialists in sustainable tourism development in Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Oman.

During the west Asian regional meeting of UNEP, the interest in the establishment of this network was overwhelming and eventually Via Nova Group was asked by the UNEP and the participating countries to prepare a study on the mechanism and the steps that need to be

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taken in order to implement such a program. This will be presented to the ministers of environment and tourism committee of the Arab League for approval and adoption. Via Nova has been in contact with STSC to co-ordinate efforts and the possibility of a Sustainable Tourism Certification Network for the Arabic Region is moving ahead.

Global

In addition to these strong regional approaches, the ISO 14001 Standard has been used in larger tourism enterprises, predominantly hotels, across the globe. Nevertheless, given the size of the tourism industry the take up rate of ISO 14001 is relatively small (BSI, pers. comm.). Programs such as Blue Flag are moving from a European to a global coverage. Green Globe and Ecotel are also global programs that do not fit into the regional structure.