National Sustainable Tourism Certification Scheme
Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority ( SLTDA) is on the process of launching a ‘National Sustainable Tourism Certification Scheme’ (NSTCS) in line with action 95 of Tourism Strategic Plan (TSP) 2017-2020, to establish sustainable tourism standards and to ensure compliance among SLTDA registered establishments. The scheme will be established through financial and technical assistance of Biodiversity Finance Initiative ( BIOFIN) of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The National Sustainable Tourism Certification Scheme is a crucial initiative to make Sri Lanka’s tourism businesses more competitive locally, internationally, and positively build Sri Lanka’s image as a sustainable tourism destination. The certification scheme will be initially conducted for the accommodation sector selecting a sample and then at the next phase will be rolled out to the entire accommodation sector, and eventually to all tourism suppliers.
SLTDA has carried out the preliminary work in this regard by entering into a collaboration with the BIOFIN/UNDP to commence a pilot project to certify the accommodation sector as an initial step towards industry-wide sustainability certification. SLTDA and UNDP also conducted a workshop on 10 May involving all key tourism stakeholders to draft a ‘ Road Map for Sustainable Tourism Certification. The outcome of the workshop was to reach consensus to develop the National Sustainable Tourism Certification Scheme in line with Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC).
As the next step, SLTDA in collaboration with Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) conducted a training program in November. The training was facilitated by GSTC Regional Director of Asia and Pacific Mihee Kang. Key stakeholders such as hoteliers, government sector officials, private sector officials participated in the training.
Sustainable Standards in other countries are rising therefore, promoting sustainable tourism is non-negotiable for Sri Lanka as its tourism product is mostly dependent on the unique natural resources, biodiversity, cultural heritage, and friendly hospitable people. The volume of tourism to Sri Lanka is expected to increase substantially in the future. Already, the island is seeing some signs of pressure on natural resources such as rapid deforestation and over visitation of wildlife nature parks. Animal viewing such as Whale Watching which is a lucrative form of income is also threatened due to the lack of responsible guidelines.
In order to protect the very resources that tourism is dependent on and for the tourism economy to grow more in the future, it is important to safeguard the natural, cultural heritage in a sustainable manner. There is no better timing than now to work together for an innovative Nat i o n a l S u s t a i n able Tourism Certification Scheme and ensure the future of Sri Lanka Tourism.
The ultimate aim of this exercise is to protect the resource base while maximising benefits to all stakeholders in tourism and leaving its benefits to future generation while winning the future tourism markets.