Dr. Ghassan AIDI
IH&RA President

August 15th, 2008
 

Dear friend and member of IH&RA,

Sustainable tourism is on the rise : consumer demand is growing, travel industry suppliers are developing new green programs, and governments are creating new policies to encourage sustainable practices in tourism. But what does sustainable tourism really mean and how can it be measured and credibly demonstrated to build consumer confidence, promote efficiency.

In an effort to foster increased understanding of sustainable tourism practices and the adoption of universal sustainable tourism principles, a coalition of 24 organizations have come together to form the Global Partnership for the Sustainable Tourism Criteria (STC Partnership), and together are working to develop and launch the Sustainable Tourism Criteria at the World Conservation Congress in October 2008.  These draft criteria are organized around the 4 pillars of sustainable tourism: effective sustainability planning; maximizing social &d economic benefits to the local community; reduction of negative impacts to cultural heritage; and reduction of negative impacts to environmental heritage.

Presently, the draft Sustainable Tourism Criteria are going through a global consultation process involving leading sustainable tourism experts and the Hospitality industry. As our member, we encourage you to lend your voice and input into the development of the Sustainable Tourism Criteria by participating in an online survey at :

 
http://www.sustainabletourismcriteria.org
 

To develop these criteria, the partnership has already consulted with sustainability experts and the tourism industry and reviewed more than 50 existing certification and voluntary sets of criteria already being implemented around the globe. In all, more than 4,500 criteria have been analyzed and more than 1000 stakeholders have commented.

I am proud to be selected with IH&RA to be a member of the STC Partnership, along with ASTA, Caribbean Alliance for Sustainable Tourism, Choice Hotels, Conde Nast, Conservation Int’l, Convention on Biological Diversity, EcoTrans, Expedia, Federation of Tour Operators, Hyatt Hotels, Int’l Council on Monuments and Sites, Int’l Union for the Conservation of Nature, Instituto do Hospitalidade, Kenyan Ecotourism, Rainforest Alliance, Sabre/Travelocity, Sustainable Travel Int’l, The Int’l Ecotourism Society, UNEP, UN Foundation, UNWTO.

Together, we believe these criteria hold promise for bringing forward a common understanding of what sustainable tourism truly means, and unlocking tourism’s potential to protect and sustain the world’s natural and cultural resources while alleviating poverty and providing long term sustainable growth.

I do encourage you actively to participate online at this survey for your country, for your region and for the World where we do live and where our children and grand children will live.

Wishing you all the best.

Hope to see you all in Monterrey.

Dr. Ghassan AIDI
IH&RA President

46th Annual IH&RA congress, 20-22 october 2008 - Monterrey, Mexico

Our Congress in Monterrey is approaching and it will be under the theme of “Leading Sustainable Development Worldwide”. I would like all of you to think about the above message and give your ideas.

All information about the IH&RA congress are available online at :
 

http://congress.ih-ra.com

Where you will find :