Tourism2030 - Announcement

Vision on Sustainable Tourism: VESTAS announcment

2012-02-28T16:26:41Z

Vision on Sustainable Tourism in partnership with the DestiNet Sustainable Tourism Information and Communications Portal, launched a new Sustainable Tourism Award at this year’s ITB Berlin.

Further details of the categories

2014-11-22T02:23:19Z

The Most Sustainable/Responsible Award

The award will initially be based on four territorial areas in Europe: Coastal, Urban, Rural, Protected. As the categories overlap, you will need to select the type of area that best reflects the setting of the proposed entrant. In each area interested stakeholders can enter places, products or services in the following categories:

1. Most Sustainable/Responsible Carrier

Including all types of transport services in the sub-categories ´rail`, ´road`, ´air` or ´water.`

2. Most Sustainable/Responsible Accommodation

including the sub-categories hotels (1-50 beds, 50 plus beds), bed & breakfast, group accommodation, holiday houses, camping sites or resorts.

3. Most Sustainable/Responsible Visitor Attraction

including the sub-categories “culture” (e.g. museums, monuments), “nature” (e.g. visitor centres, zoos, beaches), “leisure” (e.g. outdoor sport areas, holiday parks).

4. Most Sustainable/Responsible Tour Package

These can be offered by local or international tour operators & travel agents.

5. Most Sustainable/Responsible Destination

The scale here should be either villages, towns, cities or county-level (NUTS 3 or smaller according to European Nomenclature. Please note regions and larger destinations cannot be included for verification purposes. The destination must have a clearly defined principal destination management organization (e.g. local council, partnership, company, etc).

In total there will therefore be 20 categories in the main awards, with their sub-categories.

The Rusty Nail Award

In addition to the “best” awards a "rusty nail award" for destinations or enterprises who are clearly unsustainable will also be given, based on any of the categories. Entrants for the Rusty Nail Award can be nominated by anyone. However, they will not be published until an entry form is filled in that details the potentially unsustainable/irresponsible candidate and the issue in question.

The entry form will be based on the simple impact assessment form used by the European Commission. (See http://ec.europa.eu/governance/impact/commission_guidelines/docs/iag_2009_annex_en.pdf The Entry Form should have no more than 10 pages. It should a) present a description and summary of the problematic activity; b) present the analysis of the chain of responsibility; c) list the range of options identified and the options assessed in detail; d) present the main economic, social and environmental impacts. The entry form should use the following format:

1. Problem definition: What is precisely the problem, who is most affected and what intervention is necessary?

2. Analysis of responsibility: Who is legally responsible, and which administrations are involved?

3. Objectives: What are the main objectives the entrant is trying to achieve?

4. Assessment of impacts: What are the main economic, environmental and social impacts, particularly in terms of (quantified/monetised) benefits and costs (including estimates on administrative burden), other compliance costs and implementation costs for public administrations)?

5. Options: Which options have been considered and which have been assessed in detail?

6. Comparison of options: What is the preferred option on the basis of which criteria/justification?

7. Monitoring and evaluation: What follow up arrangements to monitor the actual costs and benefits and a path to sustainability?

The Country Contributing Most to “Peace through Tourism"

To demonstrate that the awards cover the issue of sustainability in depth, a special national award shall be given to ´the country contributing most to peace through tourism". Please read the DestINet peace though tourism section to see the focus of this issue and how it relates to sustainable tourism development. Please note the focus on the achievement of an Olympic Truce in 2012. This award will be taken to the World Summit on Sustainable Development follow-up in Brazil 2012.

How will the categories be judged?

The categories are designed to cover the key elements of the tourism supply chain. The VESTAS will award tourism businesses and destinations for their exemplary contribution to:

maximize social and economic benefits to the local community and minimize negative impacts
maximize benefits to cultural heritage and minimize negative impacts
maximize benefits to the environment and minimize negative impacts

Entries will be judged by their contribution to the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria. A panel of members of the ECOTRANS European network for sustainable tourism development will assess all entries for authentication. Those entrants who are authenticated will be profiled on DestiNet, where a minimum of 1000 experts across Europe will be invited to rate the applications, The highest ratings will then be presented to an international jury. The jury will make a final selection of a top three best practice examples based on the poll results.

How to participate

2014-11-22T02:23:19Z

How to participate?

In the last ten years more than 5000 tourism businesses and also some destinations have received one or more eco-certificates or awards. During this time 1000s of experts at universities, consultancies, NGOs and other initiatives have created a lot of knowledge on all sustainability aspects in tourism. These processes have happened at local, regional, national and international levels. Through the VESTAS, Vision on Sustainable Tourism and DestiNet aim to bring together all the certification and awarding systems and to use the knowledge and experience of this mass of expertise to produce a European-level ´award of awards` that also awards the efforts of other potentially award-winning certified businesses. The participation procedure will accordingly include following steps:

You need to be nominated for this award!
You have to fill in an application form to profile your self

The nomination form can be found at:

http://destinet.eu/tools/fol703514/fol588962/travelmoledestinet-sustainable-tourism-awards/VESTAs_Nomination_Form.xls

How the VESTAS is organising the participation process?

Step 1: Nomination

VESTAS will invite all country-level tourism management organisations and more than 50 certificates and awards for sustainable tourism, plus development NGOs to nominate best practice examples to nominate up to 3 businesses in each category. All nominees will be profiled on a green Sustainable Tourism Map of Europe (http://destinet.ew.eea.europa.eu/portal_map/).

Step 2: Application

VESTAS will contact and invite the nominated businesses and destinations to agree on their nomination and to fill out an entry form.

Step3: Judging the Applicants

VESTAS will invite a minimum of 1000 experts across Europe to rate the applications, using the DestiNet polling system. The European network for sustainable tourism development ECOTRANS will serve as the core group of experts, who will be augmented by networks of experts from administrators, universities, certification bodies, and the industry representatives themselves. The highest ratings will then be presented to an international jury. The jury will make a final selection of a top three best practice examples based on the poll results.

FAQs

What’s different about the VESTAS compared to other tourism awards?

The VESTAS is an ´award of awards and certification processes` at the European level, bringing together a wide range of top-class best practice sustainable tourism examples from the whole tourism supply chain, covering all types of European landscapes.

Who can submit nominations?

All country-level DMOs, tourism development NGOs and existing certification programmes and awards can submit nominations.

Can an individual business or destination nominate itself?

Yes. If a business or destination has received a eco-certificate or prize then it can contact us directly and inform us of the certification or awarding body and ask to be nominated.

When will the nomination process start?

1^st July 2010.

Will the internal rating results be published?

The rating is an internal process to identify those applications which the European experts altogether consider to be best, and comments will be publicly visible to the 1000 plus tourism experts, but not to the general public.

Will there be only 1 winner per category?

No. All participants already have certain characteristics that positively contribute to Sustainable Tourism. Nomination itself is seen as an achievement. The result of the rating will have a group of 3 top-rated applications in one category or sub-category.

VESTAS Best Practice Nomination Form

2014-11-22T02:23:19Z

Nomination is open until 15th December 2010.

Nomination steps:

1. download the VESTAS Nomination Form above

2. Fill out and send the form to vestas.destinet@ecotrans.de

After that Valere Tjolle will contact you for an article in Visions on Sustainable Tourism

VESTAS: GET YOUR RUSTY NAIL AWARD IN FOR UNSUSTAINABLE TOURISM

2014-11-22T02:23:19Z

GET YOUR RUSTY NAIL AWARD IN FOR UNSUSTAINABLE TOURISM

23 November, 2010

The threatened Bonelli's Eagle in flight

Give the threatening developers your rusty nail

Is there a VESTAs Rusty Nail in your region?

In the VESTAs, (Vision Destinet European Sustainable Tourism Awards) bad practice as well as good practice is being highlighted - a Rusty Nail award will be given to nominated tourism-related unsustainable and irresponsible stakeholder actions.

Examples might be: a piece of unjust government policy, poor governance, inappropriate property or destination development, corporate greed, harmful environmental business services/practices, oppressive and unfair social behaviour, unsustainable use of technology, etc...

In order to submit an example of irresponsible or unsustainable tourism activity to the VESTAs you have to fill in a nomination form, found on:
http://destinet.eu/who-who/civil-society-ngos/travelmoledestinet-sustainable-tourism-awards/announcement/vestas-rusty-nail-unsustainable-tourism-submission-form

An example of a Rusty Nail profile can be found on DestiNet for guidance. It focuses on the unsustainable development of the Algarve International Grand Prix development in southern Portugal, situated on the outskirts of the Monchique Natura 2000 Zone.

Here businesses and planners have collaborated to rush through a poorly planned 200 million Euro carbon- intensive motor sports tourism project, which mixes a noisy F1 standard motor racing circuit, with a technology park and tourism complex in the heartland of the red-listed Iberian lynx and Bonelli's Eagle. So much for the regional sustainable development plan then... destinet.eu/who-who/civil-society-ngos/travelmoledestinet-sustainable-tourism-awards/vestas-team-section/until-itb-2011/collecting-and-publishing-nominations/interested-making-vesta-nominations/rusty-nail-nominations

Gordon Sillence designed the unsustainable tourism assessment tool for the VESTAs by merging the GSTC framework with the EU Impact Assessment process, then simplifying the procedure to enable either a short summary or more detailed description of the issue. “If there really is a problem of unsustainable tourism development, it can now be mapped and brought to the attention of all tourism stakeholders for resolution.” The VESTAs are now encouraging NGOs, consultants and citizens to send in their own local and regional examples of unsustainable or irresponsible tourism. For further information please visit /who-who/civil-society-ngos/travelmoledestinet-sustainable-tourism-awards

Valere Tjolle

VESTAs Rusty Nail Unsustainable Tourism Submission Form

2014-11-22T02:23:19Z

In the VESTAs, bad practice as well as good practice is being highlighted - a Rusty Nail award will be given to nominated tourism-related unsustainable and irresponsible stakeholder actions. Examples might be: a piece of unjust government policy, poor governance, inappropriate property or destination development, corporate greed, harmful environmental business services/practices, oppressive and unfair social behaviour, unsustainable use of technology, etc...

In order to submit an example of irresponsible or unsustainable tourism activity to the VESTAs you have to fill in the following information form, then email the form to DestiNet vestas@destinet.eu, copied to gordon.destinet@ecotrans.de. An example of a Rusty Nail profile can be found at the end of this document for guidance. Please note that the structure of the form allows for a short summary or more detailed description of the issue, therefore allow 20 minutes to 2hrs to fill in the form once you have the information. Please read all the questions first, then fill in the form. It is likely that you will not have all the information to hand, but you should answer all compulsory questions (marked with an *asterisk).