Costa Rica Rewards Sustainable Tourism
10/9/99
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Title: Costa Rica rewards sustainable tourism
Source: Environment News Network, http://www.enn.com/
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: October 9, 1999
Byline: Lucy Chubb
The Certification for Sustainable Tourism was designed to encourage
Costa Rican tourism businesses to operate sustainably.
The Costa Rican Institute of Tourism has developed a program to
ensure that citizens and visitors in that lush Latin American country
will be able to enjoy its natural wonders now and for many
generations to come.
The Certification for Sustainable Tourism Program rates hotels
according to how sustainably they operate. The belief is that more
and more visitors to Costa Rica are making their travel plans with
sustainability in mind and that a certification process will
encourage business owners to manage their companies using sustainable
practices.
"As we look at these changes in the expectations of the tourists,"
according to information on the CST web site, "we notice how each day
they are demanding a more active, more interactive tourism, with
greater respect for the socio-cultural and ecological interests of
the local communities, with higher standards of service, and with the
ability to protect and regenerate the natural environment as well as
to learn about local customs. Of course, all of this must include a
high level of enjoyment of their hard earned vacations."
In addition to portraying Costa Rica as a country that is concerned
about sustainability issues, and opening up new marketing and
promotional opportunities on an international level, the program also
intends to discredit those organizations in Costa Rica that have been
abusing the concept of ecotravel.
"By providing reliable information on the firms that are really
making progress in producing a tourist product that is sustainable,"
according to CST, the program will help visitors distinguish between
imposters and the real thing.
Participation in the CST program is completely voluntary, and any
lodging facility in the country is invited to take part, regardless
of the size of the business or whether it is located in the city, in
the mountains or at the beach. The CST program is currently geared
toward hotels, but plans are in the works to develop certification
programs for other businesses involved in the tourism industry.
Hotels that choose to participate in CST are required to complete a
questionnaire, the answers from which are used to calculate their
sustainability certification rating. The questions are organized
around four main categories relating to sustainability:
Physical-biological parameters - the interaction between the company
and its surrounding natural habitat.
Infrastructure and services - the management policies and the
operational systems within the company and its infrastructure.
External clients - the interaction of the company with its clients in
terms of how much it allows and invites the client to be an active
contributor to the company's policies of sustainability.
Socio-economic environment - the interaction of the company with the
local communities and the population in general.
The Costa Rica Institute of Tourism has implemented the CST program
to ensure that the natural wonders of the country continue to
flourish so that future generations can enjoy them as well.
After the businesses have completed the questionnaire, their answers
are analyzed, and the company is then rated on a scale of 0 to 5. A
score of 1 means the company has taken the first steps toward
operating sustainably, and a score of 5 indicates that the business
does the very best job of operating on a sustainable basis.
CST staff members also visit the business to reconfirm the findings
of the evaluation questionnaire, said Alberto Sanchez, a biologist
who helps to coordinate the evaluations.
If a company is on the edge between two ratings, they will
automatically be given the lower rating so as to encourage the
proprietors to work harder toward operating sustainably.
For those businesses that wish to participate in the certification
program or to improve their rating, CST offers guidelines on how to
operate according to sustainable tourism practices in areas such as
energy use, water treatment, disposal of waste and the use of
recyclable and reusable products.
Businesses that participate in the CST system are provided with a
number of benefits, the value of which is directly related to the
rating they receive, meaning the better their rating the better the
benefits given out. By only giving out certain benefits to those
businesses with higher ratings, CST hopes to give companies the
incentive to do a better job of operating sustainably.
These benefits include international and national publicity and
promotion specifically designed for the CST, training for company
personnel, priority participation in various world tourism fairs and
events and more.
CST was implemented in 1997, and so far approximately 140 hotels have
been rated and entered into the CST database.