Sustainable Costa Rican destinations will now be eligible for a European certification issued by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.
The International Certification Seal TourCert is a process developed in Germany, based on international standards of quality and environmental management such as EMAS and ISO, specifically the ISO 26000 guide for Social Responsibility.
Günter Koschwitz, board member of TourCert in Germany, said that this tool allows all stakeholders and interest groups linked to tourism to be integrated into sustainable practices, corporate social responsibility and quality in the provision of services.
This certification comes to the country after the signing of an agreement between TourCert and the Costa Rican company Reinventing Business For All (RBA), which will lead the process to grant the certificates in Central America and the Caribbean.
Eduardo Villafranca, president of RBA, explained that from this, they’ll initiate the process of certification of Sustainable Tourism Destinations in Costa Rica, which will generate a greater interest in European tour operators and wholesalers, thus increasing the tourist influx in these countries.
The system has a certified tourist community of over 200 companies, most of them from Germany, Switzerland and Austria, growing markets of tourists coming to Costa Rica.
The process is reviewed by a certification board in Germany, made up of 12 tourism experts who evaluate the audit to grant the certificate.
The system makes it easy for the tourism establishment to conduct an in-depth analysis of all aspects of sustainability, determine priorities and make continuous improvements.
Companies that wish certification should follow the following steps: diagnosis, business policy review, processes and structures, development of a continuous improvement program, preparation of a sustainability report and evaluation by the certification board.