What Are Sustainable Tourism Criteria?

Sustainability is an increasingly important concept in the tourism sector as it is in all sectors. As Enerjisa, we create the future’s tourism practices from today with the SENTRUM project. In this post, we will examine sustainable tourism practices and ‘green ideas’ that can be used in the tourism sector.

What Is Sustainable Tourism, Let Us Remind.

​UN Environment Program and UN World Tourism Organization define Sustainable Tourism as “tourism activities that address the needs of visitors, industry, the environment and host communities and consider fully its present and future economic, social and environmental impacts.”

Sustainable Tourism refers to sustainable applications that aim to minimize negative impacts of tourism and maximize positive impacts. Negative impacts on the tourism sector are economic outage and damage to the natural environment.

What is a Green Destination?

Green destinations can be explained in the simplest terms as eco-friendly tourism destinations. We developed the Green Destination model with our SENTRUM project at Küçükköy which we chose as the pilot area. We developed a scalable and repeatable project. We realized Green Ideas for Green Tourism with the cooperation of Enerjisa, Sabancı University and UNDP.

There are standards and criteria established by different institutions for the concept of green destination. Widely recognized criteria are the Green Destinations criteria which are also recognized by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC).

Green Ideas for Tourism Project supported as part of the Erasmus+ program of the European Commission has certain criteria to have the tourism sector become sustainable.

For further details regarding the standards to be implemented for Green Destinations, please check the “Global Green Destination Standards and Best Practices” report prepared as part of the SENTRUM project.

What Are Sustainable Tourism Criteria?

Certain criteria are needed for Sustainable Tourism to be scalable, repeatable, and assessable. Let us now review the main criteria.

1. Destination Method
The first criterion of Sustainable Tourism is ‘Destination Management.’ Destination management criteria can be evaluated under four headings.

• Commitment and organization,
• Planning and developing,
• Monitoring and reporting,
• Legal and ethical compliance

The commitment and organization category consists of assessment criteria including sustainability coordinator, vision, management structure, qualified coordinator, and tourism sector’s engagement. Management structure is assessed by determining whether destination management has the financial and managerial capacity to take the steps of sustainable tourism destination in a coordinated way in terms of size and scale.

Vision assesses the integration of sustainability in terms of organization’s stakeholders and communication language. A qualified coordinator refers to adequate works, developments, or management activities to be done with regard to sustainability.

The planning and developing category is assessment criteria for the destination’s assets inventory, transparency of planning processes, tourism impact assessment, tourism policy, tourism action plan, stakeholders included in the action, visitor management and financial strategy.

The monitoring and reporting category is assessment criteria that cover reviewing and evaluating, indicators, communication, corrective measures, records, management reporting and public reporting.

The legal and ethical compliance category is assessment criteria that include legal compliance, ethical code, non-compliance, corruption, fair competition, and responsible public procurements.

2. Nature, Landscape and Animals
These are assessment criteria which include monitoring of the impacts of tourism on nature, protection of natural life and natural resources, and conservation of exotic species and wildlife.

• Nature and animal experience category consists of assessment categories covering captive animals in tourism with responsible nature and wildlife experiment.
• Geographical formations and landscape category is a stand-alone assessment criterion.

3. Environment and Climate
Environment and climate criteria are assessed under land use and pollution, water management, sustainable mobility, energy, and climate change together with adaptation to climate change categories, and waste and recycling.

• Land use and pollution includes environmental risks, air pollution, noise, light pollution, and land use together with their planning.
• Water management covers water resources, monitoring water quality and treatment of wastewater.
• Sustainable mobility includes public transportation, travel, and climate together with carbon offset.
• Waste and recycling cover waste reduction, waste separation, waste disposal and recycling.
• Energy and climate change includes reduced energy consumption and reduced fossil fuel dependency.

​4. Culture and Tradition
Cultural heritage includes assessments under the categories of people and traditions.

• Cultural heritage covers protection of cultural heritage and cultural assets as well as the management of the impacts of tourism on culture.
• People and future include assessment criteria for respect for intangible heritage and originality.


5. Social Well-being
Social well-being criterion is assessed under the categories of human dignity, social engagement, local economy and health and safety.

• Human dignity; ownership rights cover the assessment of resettlement, Indigenous and local people, indigenous intellectual property, protection of people, public disclosure of laws and monitoring human rights issues.
• Social engagement covers inclusion of local residents in planning, informing local residents about sustainable tourism, contributions of stakeholders, residents’ satisfaction and strengthening the community.
• Local economy covers promoting local products and services, optimizing private sector’s contribution, monitoring economic impacts and socioeconomic development.
• Social impact assessment criteria cover optimizing social impacts, use of real estate and seasonality.
• Health and safety include health, health security, measures and response, monitoring health and safety as well as crises and emergency response.

6. Business and Hospitality
Business and hospitality criterion is assessed through categories of business engagement, information and marketing and hospitality.

• Business engagement consists of assessment categories including sustainability standards, publications of certified organizations, water consumption, solid waste, wastewater treatment, energy, and greenhouse gas relation, fair and just employment, tour guide practice codes, product development.
• Information and marketing cover assessment of socially respectful promotion, honest promotion, visitor behavior in sensitive places, sustainability information for visitors, translator information and green destination.
• Hospitality criteria include assessments of visitor monitoring, visitor satisfaction, sustainability, and accessibility in visitor survey.

7. Water
Water category includes reuse of laundry and reducing used laundry, water supervision, monitoring of water consumption, water system’s maintenance, adequate insulation for water pipes, installation of efficient water fixtures, flow limiters, pool maintenance, selection of local plants for the gardens, reducing the water consumed in toilets, maintenance of green areas through recycling of rainwater and gray water.

8. Management and Monitoring
Management and monitoring category covers hotel procurement policies, green interior covering, management and environment consciousness, hotel environment program and energy management monitoring.

• Green interior covering is a criterion about reducing solvents used in paints, adhesives, carpets, and textiles or replacing these with less harmful materials made of plants and natural resources.
• Hotel procurement policy is a criterion about preferring eco-labeled products which promote fair trade and provided by trusted organizations for procured goods.
• Management and environment consciousness is a criterion about informing customers about sustainability and environment.
• Hotel environment program is a criterion related to management’s policies that prioritize and protect the environment.
• Energy management monitoring is a criterion related to monitoring energy consumption in order to obtain basic data regarding energy usage.

9. Energy
Under the category of energy, there are light emitting diodes, training of housekeeping personnel on energy, utilization of compact fluorescent lamps, mini bars in hotel rooms.

10. Waste
The waste category includes chemicals and hazardous wastes, processing of paper/cardboard wastes, waste separation and recycling, reduction of food waste and recycling used oils.

11. Housekeeping
The efficient and minimal impact cleaning category is assessed by the usage of microfiber clothes and mops, eco-labeled or less harmful cleaning chemicals.

12. Air Pollution and Emissions
The air pollution and emissions category covers air-conditioning and alternative transportation modes.

• Air-conditioning criterion relates to not using air-conditioning unless it is needed and limiting its usage below 4 or 5°C of exterior temperatures.
• Alternative transportation is the criterion related to offering alternative transportation modes other than automobiles.

13. Green Purchasing
The green purchasing category includes durable and recyclable materials.

14. Natural and Cultural Heritage
The natural and cultural heritage category includes choosing local plants for gardens and maintenance of green areas.

Why Are Green Tourism Standards Important?

We realized our SENTRUM project with the aim of creating a “sustainable green destination model” and promoting energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other sustainable tourism practices in tourism enterprises. We joined forces as Enerjisa with Sabancı University and United Nations Development Program (UNDP). As part of the SENTRUM Project, we prepared “Global Green Destination Standards and Global Good Practices Examples” Report. We listed the institutions and organizations which have reputable and trustworthy standards in the field of steps and criteria to be paid attention to gain the status of green destination and tourism enterprise.

Green destinations and green tourism enterprises are important for a sustainable future with their minimal impacts on the environment. Creating standards and establishing criteria for green tourism enabled sustainable tourism to be scalable and repeatable. We managed to take a big step towards enabling continuity of green tourism in our country. Our most important priority continues to be securing the future of the tourism sector and leaving a habitable nature for the next generations.