Voluntary
Initiatives for Sustainability in Tourism
VISIT
News
ITEM 3 - VISIT comes to the World travel
market
On Wednesday the 8th November VISIT will be having an open forum to discuss
the VISIT 21 key criteria to an audience of interested professionals in sustainable
tourism.
VISIT is the only association of certification systems in tourism in Europe.
It comprises of the leading lights in independent voluntary accreditation labels
and has over 1600 certified products. The event at WTM will allow an open discussion
of the future of ecolabelling and how it can develop further. Some case studies
will be highlighted demonstrating how it can work with tour operators schemes.
The meeting will be held at 4.30 pm where the latest developments in VISIT
will be highlighted and where a number of ecolabelling inititiatives will be
presented. One of the themes for the open discussion will be “is the
future of sustainable tourism in mainstream developments or in niche branding”.
Jon Proctor, VISIT vice Chairman stated “ This is a great oppportunity
to have an open discussion about ecolabelling and its effectiveness in delivering
sustainable tourism and how well different approaches have worked. It is clear
that we need to move tourism in a strong positive direction to help deliver
an effective practical framework for sustainable development and that tourism
is increasingly being seen as a vital industry in establishing a more sustainable
lifestyle from alleiviating poverty in the poorer developing world to preserving
cultural identity and building sustainable economies in the developed world.”
