In this interview, Albert Salman shares his impressions from the Green Destinations Conference 2022 and reveals future plans
This article is part of the “Sustainable tourism insights” interview series with speakers and participants of the Green Destinations Conference in Athens, Greece held in September 2022.
Albert Salman is the founder of Green Destinations. Anula Galewska, Travindy’s Managing Director, asked Albert to share his impressions of the Green Destinations flagship event, and the new certification scheme for business called Good Travel Program.
Albert Salman describes the first day of the Green Destinations Conference 2022 as a very successful event with great content and a lot of engagement. In general, he says, this conference is similar to the ones before COVID-19 but with far more international participants, which is quite unique for an event like this. This year, Green Destinations Conference brought toogether over 250 participants from 40+ countries. It seems that almost everybody is ready to make destinations more sustainable after the Covid pandemic, taking into account the climate crisis.
The main aim of Green Destinations these years was to establish a better certification program for destinations by making the scheme more transparent and engaging not only the destinations but also the business community. “You need the majority of the business sector to be aware at least of the big issue” – Albert says. Green Destinations also wants to help people understand what tourism enterprises do, to help travellers make a better choice. As a result, Green Destinations has launched the Good Travel Program, a certification scheme for all kinds of tourism and travel related businesses and facilities.
Albert also talks about The Future of Tourism coalition which has been established to strengthen cooperation between NGOs working in the sustainability sphere . The Future of Tourism event, which took place after the green Destinations conference was dedicated to climate change in tourism, to strengthen collaboration and climate initiatives in our industry.
Watch the interview with Albert Salman:
To be notified about interesting interviews, news and resources, sign up to our newsletter!
