Written by Jess Tyrrell

Reading time: 4 minutes

Deciding on a destination is a traveller's first port of call when planning a trip. This decision has significant consequences as the assumed benefits — or harm — of a traveller’s adventures will be felt there. It is conventional for aspiring travellers to trust the guidance and rigamarole of tourism agencies and operators, social media, and other outlets when choosing an exotic destination. This is where many a traveller are misled.

In this blog post, we’ll explore how Viatu chooses the sustainable destinations we’re promoting. Up, up, and away!

Traditional travel/tour operators select destinations based on their tourism potential. The classic considerations include natural and cultural attractions, the average price of tourism-related services (like exchange rates), health and safety, and security. As a responsible tourism development entity, we pride ourselves in offering unforgettable trips to destinations where tourism operates beneficially. As such, in addition to the classic considerations, we make sure to choose destinations with sound environmental, social and human rights management systems and avoid destinations where tourism is causing unacceptable social, cultural and ecological harm.

Viatu uses indicators and criteria aligned with our policies and the critical sustainability issues relevant to tourism to standardise our destination assessment approach.  We use the Global Sustainable Tourism Council's Destination (GSTC-D) criteria to develop sustainable destination products. There are more than 170 indicators arranged under 4 themes that were created to provide a common understanding of sustainable tourism. The scope of the GSTC-D is broad and can be applied to a wide range of destinations: they may be in any part of the world and of any type (urban, rural, mountain, coastal or mixed) and size (cities, national parks, local communities, countries or regions). Application of the criteria will help a destination to contribute towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

The criteria address 4 key themes:

1. sustainable management

2. socio-economic impacts

3. cultural impacts

4. environmental impacts

1. Sustainable management 

Management structure and framework

Stakeholder engagement

Managing pressure and change

2. Socio-economic sustainability

Delivering local economic benefits

Social wellbeing and impacts

3. Cultural sustainability

Protecting natural heritage

Visiting cultural sites

4. Environmental sustainability

Conservation of natural heritage

Resource management

Management of waste and emissions

Viatu uses publicly available resources to ‘score’ potential destinations on all 170 indicators. We use this score in concert with other sustainable tourism metrics such as tourism density, % of same-day visitors, seasonality, corruption index, and more to choose exciting destinations to share with conscious travellers.

Want to learn more about sustainable travel? Check out our fully customisable, jaw-dropping trips to sustainable destinations, unforgettable experiences and incredible stays on our site.