I am Angelique and working on sustainable tourism for Travelife and Green Destinations worldwide. But also on a local level I am active with raising awareness regarding pesticide use in public spaces and organising cleaning activities in natural areas.
I have always been thrilled by the work of the Culture Routes Society and my colleague and I from TRIADA Consultancy were happy to assist with their first projects back in 2011 and are proud to see that such (international) projects are now a substantial and successful part of the organisation!
Corona has shown once more how important it is to continue on a more earth friendly path (literally and figurallyJ) then is currently the case and I think that independent certification bodies can be very helpful in this because we have to be aware of ‘green washing’ as well.
Both Travelife and Green Destinations (GD) are working with independent auditors/ advisors like myself. Worldwide there are many provinces, natural reserves, coastal cities and islands that have a sustainability certification or won a prize or award already, see also http://collection.greendestinations.org/
And very soon we hope to add also Turkish destinations! Actually the yearly conference was planned in Bodrum in October 2020, but because of Corona it will be held online this year in October and in Bodrum in the Spring of 2021. You are of course most welcome to join: See https://greendestinations.org/events/green-destination-days-2020/
But what is GD you may wonder? Actually we are assisting destinations on their path to sustainability in every aspect: From the colour of the streetlights, involving local population in decision making, pesticide usage, carrier capacity, impact assessments of construction sites, waste management to reporting and drafting tourism policies and much more…
It is actually a very complete system that will help the destination to become a better place to visit AND to live in for humans and other living beings!
For a GD certification it is essential that the authorities of the destination are motivated, involved and most important willing to invest time and resources in order to progress.
However, for some all of this might be overwhelming and therefore as a first step there is also an opportunity to apply for the TOP100 where good practices can win a prize that is handed out on international podia like ITB Berlin. The next time the prizes will be handed out in… Bodrum during the Spring conference!
Dear readers; as you are all active or interested in (sustainable) tourism, I would like to ask you to forward authorities of destinations, natural parks, cities, towns that could be interested to me or to the official GD Turkish representative Prof.Dr. Tuncay Kuleli kulelituncay@gmail.com so that we can see if and how to proceed together on the way to a better future of tourism!
My details:
Angelique TONNAER KIRKIL
angelique@triadaconsultancy.eu
FB & LinkedIn: TRIADA Consultancy/ Travelife (Türkiye)/ Green Destinations
Write a comment: