Global Destination Sustainability Movement (GDS-Movement) and Tripadvisor have forged a strategic partnership to recognise and promote sustainable travel destinations to consumers through Tripadvisor´s Travellers’ Choice” Best of the Best” Destinations Awards.
The GDS-Movement and Tripadvisor have partnered to launch a new subcategory for 2024, Best Sustainable Destinations, combining review data and audited excellence in social, economic, and environmental performance. The Travellers’ Choice “Best of the Best” awards showcase Tripadvisor users’ favourite sustainable destinations based on rankings and reviews, integrating verified and validated GDS-Index data.
The GDS-Index is a destination-level programme from GDS-Movement that measures, benchmarks, and guides the social, economic, and environmental sustainability strategy and performance of tourism and events in participating cities and regions across the world. The index is the global standard for tracking and better managing the regenerative contributions of a destination’s visitor economy. In 2023, it measured sustainability efforts in 100 destinations across four important performance areas: city environment performance, city social sustainability performance, tourism supply chain and destination management organisation, using 69 qualitative and quantitative sustainability indicators aligned with the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The included GDS-Index cities stand out for their commitments to sustainability as measured by Tripadvisor’s ratings, including destinations for which Tripadvisor users were most likely to discuss sustainability in positive English-language reviews over a 12-month period.
Kristen Dalton, President of Tripadvisor, said: “Tripadvisor’s community of global travellers is passionate about sustainability as a consideration for when they’re planning trips and we’re proud to highlight such an important category. This category helps guide people looking to travel more sustainably while recognising the efforts of global destinations committed to environmental change.”
Find out more about the GDS Movement here.
