Washington, D.C. (September 11, 2014) The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) announces the GSTC Criteria are now translated into a variety of languages and available for download by the public. The translation of the Criteria was a collaborative effort from organizations and individuals from around the globe. Portions of the criteria are available in the following languages: Arabic, Chinese, Czech, German, Japanese, Korean, Lao, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Vietnamese, and French. All translated criteria can be found here.
The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) Criteria are the result of a worldwide effort to develop a common language about sustainability in tourism. Focusing on social and environmental responsibility, as well as the positive and negative economic and cultural impacts of tourism, the criteria are organized into four topics.
“The GSTC criteria play an important role in sustainable travel and tourism throughout the world,” says GSTC CEO Randy Durband. “Because it is important that the technical language of sustainability be well understood by travel and tourism professionals, we are making an effort to translate the criteria into many languages and call upon sustainable travel experts to distribute them widely.”
The GSTC Criteria are the minimum standards, which businesses and destinations should achieve to approach social, environmental, cultural, and economic sustainability. Since tourism destinations each have their own culture, environment, customs, and laws, the Criteria are designed to be adapted to local conditions and supplemented by additional criteria for the specific location and activity. To date, two sets of GSTC Criteria have been developed: for hotels and tour operators, and for destinations (currently in the process of public consultation of the first draft).
About the GSTC
The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) is a global initiative dedicated to promoting sustainable tourism efforts around the world. Housed within the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the GSTC works to expand understanding of and access to sustainable tourism practices; helps identify and generate markets for sustainable tourism; and educates about and advocates for a set of universal principles, as defined by the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria. The Criteria, a set of voluntary principles that provide a framework for the sustainability of tourism businesses across the globe, is the cornerstone of our initiative. For more information, visit www.gstcouncil.org.
