Joining forces on certification

There are many certification schemes out there specifically tailored for the tourism industry, which can bring valuable marketing and promotional weight to individual businesses. These schemes only have real value, however, if they are genuine, and this can be best achieved if there is a rigorous and impartial validation programme to endorse them.

With this in mind, Visit England, VisitWales, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and Fáilte Ireland have recently come together to develop a single system to validate the quality of operations and criteria of programmes for sustainable tourism certification in the areas they cover.

The sustainability aspect of tourism is growing fast, and the authorities are keen to ensure that certification in this field is taken seriously. To do so, the national boards have designated the Leeds-based International Centre for Responsible Tourism (ICRT) to provide independent advice on which certification programmes are fit for purpose. In addition, the ICRT will lend its support to all sustainable tourism certification programmes in the areas concerned to improve their systems and criteria to achieve international standards.