Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) initiated the National Sustainable Tourism Certification (NSTC) as the first step towards making the tourism industry sustainable with the technical and financial assistance of Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) of UNDP in mid-2018.
After the successful completion of the process, the first batch of hotels is set to be awarded and recognized for their impressive sustainable practices today (9) at Ape Game, Battaramulla from 6.00 pm onwards with the participation of John Amaratunga, Minister of Tourism Development, Wildlife & Christian Religious Affairs, CEO of Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) Randy Durband and Dr. Mihee Kang, Director Asia and the Pacific of GSTC.
This project was designed considering the current importance given to sustainable tourism globally, and to successfully compete as a highly demanded destination. The global context was considered in designing the project with the facilitation of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) so that the certification will be relevant not only to Sri Lanka but also internationally.
It is also the first time in the world, a government tourism organization has taken an initiative of this kind and the certification scheme was designed after a series of consultations with the stakeholders where issues, suggestions and recommendations were obtained. As the pilot project, it was decided to implement the certification in the accommodation sector in the 1st phase and later open it to all tourism service providers.
After which a questionnaire was sent out to all classified hotels registered with SLTDA to select a sample and43 hotels responded with their interest in being a part of the pilot project.
Hotel Auditing process started in April 2019 by the SLTDA staff who were trained before that by Dr. Mihee Kang, Regional Director, Asia & Pacific of Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) and by the end of April 2019 SLTDA successfully conducted audits in all 37 properties with the assistance of internal and external auditors. Finally, the evaluation process was conducted by an evaluation committee comprising of professionals in sustainability and tourism fields.
Parallel to the awards ceremony, a tree-planting ceremony is scheduled to take place at 8.30 am in the Marine Drive, Colombo today and a three-day sustainable destination management training programme from August 6 to 8t August for government, provincial council officers and industry stakeholders.
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