ASTC Sustainable Tourism

Thoughts on Sustainability Tourism Certifications

More and more consumers are looking for transparency with the types of goods and services they consume. Third Party Certifications are important to understand and consider so that your organizational model has a solid foundation, and also to help tourists make more informed decisions.

A certification can come from a government organization, internally from the company itself, or a certifying organization (3rd Party Certs). Third Party Certifications generally have more credibility than internal certifications, because they tend to be accredited by an independent accreditation organization. It is still wise to be skeptical of third party certifications because money is exchanging hands.

How does one know if something is internally certified vs. certified by a third party?

Just ask, and if you can't get a fast and direct answer, then they most likely are internally. Any organizations can just make up their own guidelines with their own logo and declare they are certified.

Another way is a fact check. Get as much information from the organization as possible and do some detective work. Or just complete our stakeholder form and we will do the research for you and get back to you. We would love to learn who is certified in our 5 state service area.

As mentioned in the Sustainable Tourism write up, ASTC believes the proof is in the pudding. The owner or steward of the organization should be able to have a open dialogue about what sustainability means to them and actually provide material information directly for you to look over and reflect upon. For ASTC, this method is more important than a piece of paper because it connects people and has the potential to create stakeholders.

From 2021-2024, ASTC will not be actively searching for any certifications.

To become more familiar with certifications, please look over the state and international groups below. Our @ASTC_LLC twitter certification list has options to look over.

Afterwards, go over to our forum and offer us feedback on this topic.

Below are state certifications that we found in our service area.

Below are international links about sustainable tourism.