Tourism Sustainability Council (TSC)

The TSC, formed in September 2009, is a merger between the Partnership for Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC) and the Sustainable Tourism Stewardship Council (STSC).  These bodies grew out of the proliferation of tourism certification schemes around the world which resulted in a need harmonise standards, promote the triple-bottom line of sustainability, accredit certification bodies and increase regional cooperation.

The merger will ensure that a there is a common framework for the practice of sustainable tourism and that there is a central organization to offer support and tools to tourism stakeholders, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that tourism helps, rather than harms, local communities and the environment.

Ultimately, the TSC will address the following objectives:

• Foster public and private tourism sector awareness about the importance of sustainable tourism;
• Develop knowledge-sharing, communications and educational tools and disseminating existing ones that can help the tourism industry work towards improved sustainability performance;
• Help businesses identify self-assessment, verification, certification and other services that can help them get started or advance in their sustainability efforts;
• Foster business-to-business solutions that will facilitate wider market access for sustainable tourism products, especially those that have been certified under a TSC- accredited program;
• Develop baseline criteria and recommended performance indicators for all relevant sectors of the tourism industry;
• Develop the procedural criteria that sustainable tourism certification programs must meet in order to be accredited;
• Accredit certification programs that fulfill accreditation requirements and whose standards meet or exceed baseline criteria and indicators and; and
• Communicate and promote to the industry and consumers sustainable businesses particularly.

The Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC)

The GSTC were launched at the World Conservation Congress in October 2008. These criteria will be the minimum standard that any tourism business should aspire to reach in order to protect and sustain the world’s natural and cultural resources while ensuring tourism meets its potential as a tool for poverty alleviation.  The goal of these criteria is to:

• Serve as basic guidelines for businesses of all sizes to become more sustainable, and help businesses choose sustainable tourism programs that fulfill these global criteria;
• Serve as guidance for travel agencies in choosing suppliers and sustainable tourism programs;
• Help consumers identify sound sustainable tourism programs and businesses;
• Serve as a common denominator for media to recognize sustainable tourism providers;
• Help certification and other voluntary programs ensure that their standards meet a broadly-accepted baseline;
• Offer governmental, non-governmental and private sector programs a starting point for developing sustainable tourism requirements; and
• Serve as baseline guidelines for education and training bodies such as hotel schools and Universities.

What do the TSC and GSTC mean for the STNSA and for Africa?

• As a global initiative, Africa must participate in the dialogue to ensure that the African perspective is heard.  This will also guarantee that Africa benefits from the global process.
• New/existing standards and certificates in SADC should seek greater alignment with GSTC to ensure their credibility in the global market.
• The STNSA online benchmarking tool will enable tourism businesses in SADC to self-assess against the GSTC.