sustainable tourism certification
We facilitate businesses and destinations on their path to becoming certified with any of the GSTC-recommended sustainable tourism certification schemes, and others designed for tourism and hospitality.
With our support, tourism destinations, hotels and tour companies are ready for certification at least four times quicker than companies, which prepare on their own! We guarantee that you will get certified, provided that you follow our advice!
Travindy facilitates certification preparation for individual teams and organisations, but also has suitable programs for groups and associations interested in certifying their members.
Travindy facilitates certification preparation for individual teams and organisations, but also has suitable programs for groups and associations interested in certifying their members.
SUSTAINABILITY CERTIFICATION
There is a range of sustainability certifications available, including: general sustainability certifications (eg. B Corporation), sustainability reporting certifications, climate-related certifications, environmental management certifications and standards (eg. ISO 1400), green building certifications (eg. LEED) and also regional product certifications (eg. Eco label) and specialty certifications for different industries.
Within tourism and hospitality industry, there are general sustainability schemes recognised and accredited by the Global Sustainable Tourism Standard (eg. Green Globe and Green Key for hotels, Good Travel Seal for MSMEs, Travelife for tour operators and Green Destinations for destinations) and micro-certifications focused on specific areas of the business (eg. SUP-Free – free from single-use plastics, or The Pledge on food waste).
WHY CERTIFICATION?
A sustainability certification program engages employees and drives company-wide commitment and purpose. Third-party verification will also increase your credibility as an environmentally and socially-responsible company. Sustainability certification will also help you:
– Strengthen your brand image
– Attract new customers and business partners
– Reduce costs
– Optimise sustainability and environmental management
– Motivate your team
– Recruit best talents
– Attract investors
– Transparently communicate your sustainability efforts
Frequently Asked Questions
There are many certification programs out there, and which program to choose depends on the type of your organisation/ destination, your market, time and budget. Our consultant will help you choose the right certification for you. We work with certification programs designed for tourism and hospitality, including all the standards recognised by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.
The cost depends on the certification you choose but the prices for small businesses start at 200EUR, and can be as high as a few thousand EUR for complex programs on a destination level or international hotel chains. Some certification programs charge an annual membership fee and an extra audit fee, while others include the audit fee in the final price. Apart from the certification fee, no significant financial investments are necessary to get certified.
Certification preparation can take as little as a few weeks to a year. The reason for a longer preparation time is often a complex management structure where decisions take time, or lack of sustainability knowledge at the company prior to taking decision to get certified. With our support, preparation takes between 1 to 4 months, depending on the organisation size and certification program.
Sustainable tourism certifications are much easier to acquire than you think. The majority of the certification programs are process-based, which means they verify whether you have the right processes and policies in place, and the actual performance plays a smaller role. This means that you can get certified even if you are at the very beginning of your sustainability journey but have a strong commitment and all the documents in place. There are also micro-certifications, which are performance-based and they check your actual results in a specific area (eg. plastic waste, food waste or climate). On one hand they are more difficult because you need to show the result, however, they focus on a one specific topic and don’t check all the other areas of sustainability management.
Preparation process
Once the right certification has been chosen for a company or tourism destination we work with, we follow a number of steps to help you get certified:
– Gap analysis to assess your organisation/ destination against sustainability criteria
– Introductory sustainable tourism training for your managers and staff, to ensure the basic knowledge necessary to proceed with the certification preparation
– Team workshop designed in a way to mirror certification criteria, and helps you prepare most of the necessary certification documentation
– Personalised coaching to help you address the remaining certification criteria
– Application writing – in case you don’t have time for writing the actual application, we can do it on your behalf, based on information provided by you
– Pre-audit application check – we will check your application before submitting it to the certification body to avoid any unpleasant surprises
– Audit preparation – we will share with you and your team tips on how to prepare for an audit to make sure it goes smoothly
COMPLETED PROJECTS
CLIENT
Travelife
We were contracted by the European Centre for Eco Agro Tourism to prepare local tour operators and activity providers from Kyrgyzstan for Travelife certification. This activity was conducted in collaboration with Helvetas, KATO (Kyrgyz Association of Tour Operators) and KCBTA (Kyrgyz Community Based Tourism Association). The program consisted on onsite and online training, followed by group and individual coaching. We worked with companies from all over Kyrgyzstan, with a special focus on Bishkek, Osh and Naryn. As a result of the project, 20 tour operators received Travelife Partner award. In addition to tour operators preparation, we coordinated… Learn more
Featured sustainability certification schemes for tourism and hospitality
