GSTC Launches Self-Assessment Tool for Destinations to Enhance Sustainable Tourism Practices

Published on April 10, 2025

By: Paramita Sarkar

The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) has unveiled a new self-assessment tool designed to help tourism destinations evaluate and improve their sustainability efforts. This tool, developed to measure progress across four key pillars of the GSTC Destination Criteria, provides an accessible and straightforward way for destinations to track their sustainability practices.

The self-assessment tool focuses on Sustainable Management, Socioeconomic Impacts, Cultural Impacts, and Environmental Impacts, offering destinations a framework to assess their current practices and identify areas for improvement. The tool’s intuitive design makes it suitable for destinations of all sizes, from well-established tourism hubs to emerging travel spots, regardless of their sustainability expertise.

Sustainable Management
The first pillar encourages destinations to review their governance structures, stakeholder engagement, visitor volumes, and crisis management strategies. This section provides a clear evaluation of whether these management practices are well-implemented or still in development, making it easier for destinations to identify areas where further action is needed.

Socioeconomic Impacts
This section helps destinations assess the benefits of tourism for local communities and economies. It encourages destinations to ensure that tourism activities generate tangible benefits for residents, enhancing the positive impacts of tourism on local livelihoods. Destinations can evaluate how well tourism growth translates into meaningful contributions to the economy and quality of life for local populations.

Cultural Impacts
Focusing on the protection and promotion of local heritage, this area of the tool enables destinations to assess how well they preserve cultural identity while welcoming tourists. It helps destinations measure their efforts to safeguard cultural assets and maintain a balance between tourism development and cultural sustainability.

Environmental Impacts
Environmental stewardship is critical for sustainable tourism. This section focuses on resource consumption, pollution reduction, and the conservation of biodiversity and landscapes. Destinations can measure their efforts to reduce their environmental footprint and conserve natural resources, helping them implement more effective environmental practices.

The self-assessment tool uses a simple “yes/no” or “in progress” answer format, making it accessible even to destinations with limited sustainability expertise or resources. It provides a clear snapshot of each destination’s current performance, assigning a completion score (ranging from 0% to 100%) to help destinations understand their level of progress in each area. As part of a continuous improvement process, destinations can reassess their progress over time, making the tool a dynamic resource for ongoing sustainability efforts.

Tiffany Chan, the GSTC Destinations Program Manager, emphasized the tool’s importance for the global tourism sector. “Our new self-assessment tool is an important step forward in helping destinations align with GSTC’s Destination Criteria. It is designed to be intuitive and practical, enabling destinations of all sizes to measure and improve their sustainability efforts.”

By completing the tool, destinations will gain valuable insights, actionable strategies, and tools to reduce their environmental impact, promote social responsibility, and support cultural sustainability. This initiative is expected to play a key role in fostering sustainable tourism practices around the world and is a vital resource for destinations aiming to meet global sustainability standards.