This page was last updated March 10, 2009
Projects > Certification
Certification is a way of ensuring that a business, product, or service meets certain standards. It awards a logo to those that, based on an audit or assessment, meet or exceed a set of specific baseline criteria. Today, certification is viewed as an important tool for distinguishing genuine ecotourism or sustainable tourism companies, products, or services from those that are simply using “green” language to market themselves.
Certification has a long history within the tourism industry. The earliest programs – the American Automobile Association (AAA), Michelin guides in Europe, and Mobil’s five-star program which is today global – date back to the early 20th century. Their purpose has been to measure quality, price and service, as well as some aspects of health, hygiene, and safety, in lodgings and restaurants.
In recent years, as concern has grown about the negative impacts of tourism, there have been efforts to develop certification programs that measure environmental and social impacts. In the decade between the United Nations’ Earth Summit in 1992 and the International Year of Ecotourism in 2002, more than 60 “green” certification programs were developed, mostly in Europe. Today, there are close to 80 “green” tourism certification programs, with new programs being developed in countries in Latin America, Asia, and to a lesser extent Africa. Most are nationally-based and the majority are for accommodations. However, increasingly programs have been developed for other parts of the tourism industry: parks, beaches, guides, tour operators, transportation, destinations, etc.
CREST is deeply involved in researching and promoting sound certification programs. In 2000, CREST’s predecessor, the Ecotourism Project of the Institute for Policy Studies, organized the first ever international meeting of ecotourism and sustainable tourism certification programs. Since many of these programs were developed in isolation from one another, one of the challenges is to “harmonize” their criteria around a common framework. This historic conference, held at Mohonk Mountain House, produced the Mohonk Agreement that laid out a framework of fundamental components that all “green” certification programs must include (See Certification Conferences and Workshops).
Today, CREST, together with The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) and Rainforest Alliance, is undertaking research as part of a coalition effort to strengthen, promote and harmonize certification programs and criteria for sustainable ecotourism and to create a global accreditation body or stewardship council. Below are links to CREST-based certification research along with a general overview of green tourism certification programs.