(TAN): The Global Destination Sustainability Index (GDS-Index) has entered a partnership with EarthCheck to develop and roll out specially designed certification and services for business tourism, events and meeting cities.
GDS-Index is a destination level programme that measures, benchmarks and advances the sustainability strategy and performance of meetings, events and business tourism destinations across the globe. EarthCheck, on the other hand, is an Australia-based scientific benchmarking certification and advisory group for travel and tourism.
The alliance primarily aims to assist cities, regions and countries “to improve the environmental, social and economic performance of their visitor economy” in order to become more sustainable.
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Guy Bigwood, Co-founder and Managing Director for the GDS-Index, said their objective was to streamline the process that involves benchmarking and certification, and using certification to push sustainability.
“Increasingly Destination Management and Marketing Organisations (DMOs) are championing sustainability and the use of eco-certification within their communities of event organisers, hotels, venues and restaurants. However only 16% of the GDS-Index DMOs have a destination certification. Our goal is to simplify and accelerate the journey from benchmarking to certification for destination management organisations, and then use certification to drive sustainability performance,” he added.
Under the partnership, GDS-Certify, that can be applied for urban destinations that are starting to become sustainable, will be launched. GDS-Certify is a third-party sustainability certification for business tourism, events and meeting cities that is designed by EarthCheck science and software systems, and supported by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council Destination Criteria.
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Founder and Chief Executive Officer of EarthCheck, Stewart Moore said the collaboration will enable GDS-Index cities to attain EarthCheck Certification and benchmarking in a science-based way.
“In addition to certification, we will collaborate to research, develop and provide high value services to help cities, regions, countries, and their value chains to measure and report on the social, environmental and economic impact of their visitor economy,” he said.
Earlier this year, the capital of Austria, Vienna, joined the performance improvement programme of GDS-Index to further improve the sustainability of its meetings, reports said. Vienna is reportedly one of the world’s foremost meeting destinations.
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“Vienna’s decision to join the GDS-Index dovetails seamlessly with our 2025 Visitor Economy Strategy, which is geared towards the city’s environmentally, financially and socially sustainable development as a tourism and meetings destination. Under the strategy, the capital is committed to upholding the UNWTO’s Global Code of Ethics for Tourism and meeting the UN’s Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals,” Chief Executive Officer of the Vienna Tourist Board, Norbert Kettner was quoted by Sustain Europe as saying.
“The GDS-Index is a valuable benchmark for the meetings industry, one of Vienna’s strong points. But it also sets an example for the entire destination, which is dedicated to generating added value for the city, as well as its guests, residents and businesses,” he added.
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