England, Wales Ireland in joined up green thinking
Xavier Font of ICRT – Certifier of Certifiers
Green tourism certification to be evaluated by ICRT
Wales and Ireland have now agreed to join England by having ICRT endorse certification programmes. At present after some two years of performing that function solely for VisitEngland, the only certification programme passed as ‘Fit for purpose’ by ICRT is the Green Tourism Business Scheme.
Visit England, Visit Wales, Northern Ireland Tourist Board and Fáilte Ireland have now developed a single system to endorse the quality of operations and criteria of sustainable tourism certification programmes operating in and across these countries.
Says VisitEngland: "This is particularly important in the light of increased awareness of sustainability by consumers as well as the media, which will be quick to highlight perceived ‘green wash’ and thereby undermine the credibility of the entire sustainable tourism accreditation agenda. The purpose of the validation programme, therefore, is ‘to certify the certifier’."
This is the first time these national tourism authorities have come together to develop any such scheme, and is a sign of how seriously the sustainability agenda is being taken in each country.
VisitEngland continues: "The new endorsement process, undertaken by the International Centre for Responsible Tourism based at Leeds Metropolitan University on behalf of the national boards, will both provide independent assurance of which certification programmes are fit for purpose, and in turn will support all sustainable tourism certification programmes in these areas to improve their systems and criteria to achieve international standards"
Speaking on the new development, Xavier Font from the International Centre for Responsible Tourism said –
“We are delighted to be working in collaboration with VisitEngland, Visit Wales, Northern Ireland Tourist Board and Failte Ireland to make sense of sustainable tourism certification for tourism businesses and consumers. Their leadership is to be applauded, illustrating a consistent approach that raises the standard of certification and their market appropriateness.”
Vision on Sustainable Tourism understands that there is still a small queue of certifiers that have not yet passed muster by ICRT.
Valere Tjolle
Valere Tjolle is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite
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