Destination Canada is committed to sustaining a premier four-season tourism economy that is regenerative in nature - supporting both the economy and the environment, and we are taking steps to continuously audit and improve our systems and processes and encourage our partners across the industry to do the same.
With this in mind, we are proud to share that we have officially joined the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC, an international body responsible for establishing and managing global standards for sustainable travel and tourism, known as the GSTC Criteria. Destination Canada has signed up to fulfill the Destination Criteria for public policy-makers and destination managers - reaffirming our commitment to creating, promoting and facilitating a sustainable tourism economy, and supporting sustainable tourism policies.
In addition to signing on to the GSTC, we have taken several other actions towards embracing sustainable approaches to business and tourism. These include creating an Environmental Sustainability team internally, working with a third-party organization to measure our carbon footprint and identify areas for improvement, and taking steps to improve our social procurement policies and impacts.
We also launched our award-winning Business Events Sustainability Plan, a national program aimed at improving the economic, socio-cultural and environmental sustainability practices of business events hosted in Canada. The plan includes coaching, training and education opportunities for domestic partners to advance their sustainability programs.
“Becoming a member of the GSTC underlines our commitment to create and preserve a Canadian hosting sector that not only benefits the economy, but respects and protects the environment, social cohesion, cultural social sustainability and all communities across Canada”, said Marsha Walden, Destination Canada’s President and CEO.
“We recognize our duty to serve as destination stewards and champions of sustainability, and we know the value and importance of a regenerative approach to tourism. We are committed to not only exploring, embracing and applying sustainable policies and practices throughout our organization, but to championing this across the industry. We look forward to the exchanges, learnings and increased accountability that will come from being members of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.”
