What is the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) standard?

     Sustainable tourism is a tourism operation that, in addition to the expectation of economic propulsion, also takes into account the capacity and stewardship of natural resources, communities, traditions, and ways of life associated with tourism to pass on to following generations. Businesses, governments, and international agencies must work together to develop guidelines to support sustainable tourism, especially through the use of tools such as the Global Sustainable Tourism Council’s (GSTC) Sustainable Tourism Criteria.

      The GSTC criteria provide an understanding of the basic guidelines for each agency responsible for managing a destination in a sustainable, viable, and comprehensive way. Four dimensions are included:

• Sustainable management;
• Increase benefits and reduce negative social-economic impacts on local communities;
• Increase benefits and reduce negative cultural impacts on communities and tourists;
• Increase benefits and reduce negative environmental impacts.

      Developing such guidelines is a challenging global mission in line with the goals of the United Nations, for the purpose of alleviating poverty and improving gender equality and environmental sustainability, especially issues related to the problem of climate change, which is one of the most important issues that is currently being discussed. There are well-developed and established criteria, such as the UNWTO destination level indicators and Sustainable Tourism Guidelines for Hotels and Tour Operators.