CARIBBEAN-TOURISM-Public and private sectors unite towards sustainability of tourist destinations

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, , CMC -In an effort to assist some of the world’s most popular travel destinations that are vulnerable to issues such as climate change and unsustainable development, the new Sustainable Destinations Alliance for the Americas (SDAA), was launched here on Thursday.
The alliance stems from the largest scale effort to date through which public and private entities have united to focus on destination sustainability in the Americas.
The SDAA will offer seven destinations in the Caribbean and Latin America significant support with their sustainability efforts. Each participating destination will begin with an evaluation of destination management practices designed to recognize areas of strength, and to identify areas in which they have the greatest opportunity to improve.

Destinations will also have access to an online sustainable tourism course called Sustainable Tourism Professionals, designed to facilitate implementation of sustainability practices, and a destination sustainability monitoring framework called SMART, which will support the tracking of key performance metrics.
Sustainable Travel International, the Alliance’s non-profit implementation partner, will conduct assessments in each destination using its Rapid Destination Diagnostic tool, which provides a snapshot of the destination’s sustainability status, a summary of destination management priorities, and valuable input to inform and shape destination level policies.