Green Destinations GSTC-Accredited

Certification Body

About GSTC and Green Destinations

Our Certification Programs for Destinations are structured by Green Destinations Standard, recognised by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) and offers GSTC-Accredited certification to destinations in recognition of sustainable destination management.

“Obtaining GSTC-Accreditation affirms Green Destinations’ effort in complying with the highest international standards in order to establish and offer awards and certification programs.” – GSTC

The GSTC-Recognised Green Destination Standard covers a set of criteria to measure, monitor and improve sustainable destination efforts.

read about our accreditation on the gstc website

Our GSTC-Accredited Certification Programs

Green Destinations’ Certification Program enhances destinations’ sustainability and quality, along with its visibility worldwide. Some benefits of our program are:

Continuous and comprehensive assessment and improvement of a destination’s sustainability ‘performance’
Accredited independent recognition of a destination’s efforts, achievements and positioning as a place that takes good care of its environment, people and culture
The use of GSTC logo and Green Destinations Certification logos
Promotion of the destinations across Green Destinations’ social media, website, and Good Travel Guide platform

Green Destinations first Achieved GSTC-Accreditiation in 2018 and renewed this status in 2024.

Learn more about Green Destinations Certification Program

Affiliate Certification Programs

Green Destinations collaborates closely with other destination certification programs that chose Green Destinations for the back-office infrastructure and as Accredited Certification Body for their own (GSTC-Recognised) standard.

Mountain IDEAL is a certification scheme for mountain resorts in North America, with a number of well-known destinations certified such as Vail and Breckenridge (Colorado). It has a focus on the sustainability performance in a ski-resort context and is managed by the Walking Mountain Science Center.

Sustainability Label South Tyrol is a regional certification scheme in the bi-lingual Alpine region of Südtirol-Alto Adige in the north of Italy. Developed and managed by the regional organisation for Innovation, Development and Marketing (IDM), the South Tyrol Standard was derived from the GSTC-Destination Standard to become applicable to the regional context.

Our GSTC-Accreditation extends to these 2 schemes.

Our GSTC-Recognized Standard

The Green Destinations Standard (V2) is a GSTC-recognised set of criteria to measure, monitor and improve the sustainability policy and management of destinations and regions. It makes sustainable development concrete, objective and demonstrable. In 2020, the 1st GD Standard (developed in 2016) was updated based on consultation with the GD Partnership and re-aligned with the GSTC Destination Criteria V2 – prolonging its ‘GSTC Recognised Status’ in 2021.

download the standard (v2) here