Alimentadores, tableros, canalizaciones y servicios generales

This section includes the summary of four workshops held during this annual tourism and travel trade show. The focus groups were very heterogeneous and included academics, consultants, experts in conservation, certification, and accreditation, as well as representatives from different sectors and associations of the tourism industry. The summary is structured to identify eight different areas: benefits, disadvantages, various issues and conditions, organization structure, financial structure, implementation, marketing and, recommendations, on the feasibility of the STSC.

Benefits

Participants identified consistency of standards as a key benefit that accreditation and certification can help achieve.

Accreditation and certification bodies can obtain recognition among tourists and can serve as a standard that helps to mediate disputes among stakeholders. An accreditation body could also help alleviate the marketing limitation that some certification bodies experience. NGOs would benefit from an accreditation body because they could have a voice in setting standards and could receive support to help develop sustainable tourism and ecotourism projects. Governments could also play a role in setting principles of sustainable and eco- tourism.

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The tourism industry’s “green” claims as a whole would be perceived as more credible, and the image and reputation of destinations would be improved by sound certification programs. Small operators would have access to new markets and operators, in general, would benefit from a reliable source of technical advice and information.

Host communities would benefit from certification and accreditation, as their local priorities would be taken into account with the establishment of appropriated procedures.

Disadvantages

Small-scale companies and communities at the destinations are often not organized and/or financially able to participate in these processes and this could represent and entry barrier in the market.

General issues and conditions

At present most certification programs do not have the capacity and financial resources to advertise effectively to the pubic but increasing consumer demand for tourism certified products remains a long-term goal. In addition, raising awareness of the importance of socially and environmentally responsible tourism in the host country would also benefit certification and accreditation processes. Other participants contended that effectiveness of certification and accreditation depends on the ability that the industry itself has to reach its consumers; proactive entrepreneurs should lead and educate the market about accredited certification.

While in some markets, certification is perceived as synonymous with quality (as measured, for instance, by the five star rating system), the challenge is to create widespread awareness of social and environmental standards both within the tourism industry and among the public. The effectiveness of certification programs is related to a variety of issues, including saving on marketing expenditure, education, the structuring of the programs, and the use by outbound tour operators that want to sell certified products. At present, the bevy of ecolabels creates confused messages and prevents the growth of consumer demand. Certification costs can also represent a serious obstacle for small and medium enterprises. Workshop participants concluded that government support for certification schemes is very important. This support can come through legislation, financing, technical support, incentives to certified operations and advice. Furthermore, certification can be more effective if health and safety, as well as quality, criteria are included in the schemes. Finally, some tourism certification programs are small – covering limited geographical areas or small slices of the tourism market -- and this can create obstacles to establishing a global accreditation body.

Organizational structure

It was proposed to analyze the structure of ISEAL members (see Chapter 5), since these are also stewardship councils for other sectors with longer trajectories, or to create a tourism division within ISEAL. It was strongly recommended that the structure be regional one with the capacity to address specific issues within particular countries. A participant suggested having a more complex pyramid structure, with country representation, then regional representation, and finally an elected representative from the region who would sit on the council of the accreditation body. This sustainable tourism and ecotourism accreditation body should be reviewed by peers (other accreditation bodies) working with other

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industries. It was further suggested that in filling the board, it is important to select persons with solid reputations, to avoid possible conflicts of interest, and to rotate the chief executive among the NGOs. Representatives of national tourism boards should be allowed to be represented in the board. Finally, the organizational structure should be flexible to accommodate necessary reforms, include an appeal system, and include different membership categories. .

Financial structure

Workshop participants offered a variety of suggestions for how to finance an accreditation body’s operations.

• Charging fees to applicants for consultation on capacity building and other services. • Receiving support from governments, UNEP and WTO.

• Including the cost of accreditation and certification in the holiday price paid by the tourist.

• Fees from certification programs.

• Businesses, tourism associations, and consumers should pay; however, this point was controversial because some thought this was not feasible.

It was agreed that a financial model could not be set until a careful cost-benefit analysis had been done of what it will take to set up and run an international accreditation body.

Implementation

It was considered premature to suggest an implementation plan at this stage, however it was suggested that it would be useful to collaborate with existing accreditation bodies and regional initiatives such as VISIT. Whatever the implementation plan, it will need to fit with tourism industry initiatives in order to get industry support.

Marketing

Participants viewed marketing as very important for the development of an accreditation body because it can raise consumer and industry demand for certification. To avoid further confusion among the consumers it was suggested the use of the international accreditation logo together with existing ones for individual certification programs. Alliances with international organizations such as TIES, WTO and UNEP and collaboration with NGOs should be forged to help spread awareness and educate the industry.

Recommendations

General recommendations included that it is necessary to obtain consumers’ feedback before creating the STSC, and that it is important to implement environmental education for consumers, suppliers, and employees.

Recommendations for setting criteria: There was not an agreement among workshop participants as to whether the criteria should be performance based or process based or a mixture of both. However, participants suggested using guidelines from existing programs, while making the accreditation scheme independent, neutral, and based on stakeholder consultation. As setting criteria is complex, it was suggested devising a flexible scheme

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with general standards plus specific indicators for each region and each sub-sector (accommodations, guides, tour operators, etc). In addition, there is a need to establish the scope of the assessors’ technical competence. Recommendations for setting verification criteria included that the assessed certification programs should be required to produce appropriate documentation, and that the accreditation assessors should work on a regional basis. Certification bodies should be physically inspected and assessed initially, followed by an onsite reassessment every two or three years, in addition do random audits.

Recommendations for creating comparable criteria among programs: Certification programs must be multistakeholder, transparent, market-friendly, and include health and safety, quality, and sustainability criteria. Global standards should be set but allow for variations among regions since different regions have different priorities and physical, economic, cultural and social realities. Compliance needs to be demonstrated on paper, including the creation of a matrix with the most important criteria and a numerical system to help compare criteria across regions. This international accreditation body for sustainable tourism and ecotourism should be linked to accreditation or standardization bodies in each country.

Further suggestions

The STSC standards should reflect every day business realities, include the whole range of tourism producers, and be structured so as not to become a barrier for SMEs. STSC should carefully consider the pros and cons of using multiple logos of the accredited certification program versus one single logo, as some certification programs would like to maintain their own image. Finally, the accreditation body should target tour operators to encourage them to use certified products as they can influence their supply chain through green purchasing policies.