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Unlock This CourseWhen we talk about sustainable tourism products and services, we mean the actual things tourists can buy, book and experience that are designed to cause as little harm as possible and ideally do some good. Think eco-lodges instead of giant resort hotels, electric safari jeeps instead of diesel ones, or a local food tour instead of eating at a global fast-food chain.
These products and services have grown massively over the last 20 years. More tourists want them, more businesses are offering them and more governments are supporting them. But they only work if people actually know they exist which is where promotion and availability come in.
Key Definitions:
This includes eco-lodges, glamping sites, family-run guesthouses and certified green hotels. These places use renewable energy, reduce water waste, source food locally and often employ people from the local community. A good example is Feynan Ecolodge in Jordan, which runs entirely on solar power and is managed by local Bedouin people.
Getting to and around a destination sustainably is a huge part of the picture. This includes electric buses, cycling tours, train travel over flying and carbon offset schemes for unavoidable flights. In Amsterdam, tourists are actively encouraged to hire bikes rather than take taxis, reducing congestion and emissions.
These are companies that organise holidays with sustainability built in. They choose local guides, avoid wildlife exploitation, support community projects and are transparent about their environmental impact. Intrepid Travel is one of the world's largest adventure travel companies and has been carbon neutral since 2010.
Cooking classes with local families, craft workshops, community-led wildlife tours these are sustainable experiences. The money goes directly to local people rather than large corporations. In Rwanda, gorilla trekking permits cost up to $1,500 each, with a large portion going directly to conservation and local communities.
One of the biggest challenges in sustainable tourism is trust. How does a tourist know if a hotel is genuinely eco-friendly, or just using the word "green" to attract customers? This is where certification schemes come in. They act like a quality stamp an independent body checks whether a business really meets sustainability standards before giving it a recognised label.
A business applies to be assessed. Inspectors check things like energy use, waste management, water conservation, community involvement and fair employment. If the business passes, it gets a certificate or badge it can display. Tourists can then look for this badge when booking.
One of the world's leading eco-labels for tourism. Over 3,000 establishments in 57 countries hold the Green Key award. It covers hotels, campsites, hostels and attractions. Businesses must meet strict criteria on energy, water and environmental education.
This certification is common in Central and South America. It focuses on biodiversity conservation, worker welfare and community benefit. Tourists booking with a Rainforest Alliance certified operator know the trip meets international sustainability standards.
Costa Rica's Certificate for Sustainable Tourism (CST) rates businesses on a scale of 1 to 5 leaves. It covers physical-biological parameters, infrastructure, external clients and socio-economic environment. It's one of the most respected national schemes in the world.
According to the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), there are now over 60 recognised certification programmes for sustainable tourism worldwide. The GSTC sets the global baseline standards that all these schemes must meet to be taken seriously. Without a body like the GSTC, anyone could invent a fake "green" badge and put it on their website.
Having great sustainable products is only half the battle. If tourists don't know about them, they won't book them. Promotion is about getting the message out through tourism boards, travel agents, websites, apps, events and partnerships. Let's look at the main ways sustainable tourism is promoted.
Governments promote their countries as sustainable destinations through their National Tourism Organisations. These bodies create marketing campaigns, attend international travel fairs and produce guides that highlight eco-friendly options. Visit Scotland, for example, runs a dedicated "Responsible Tourism" section on its website, listing certified businesses and promoting low-impact travel routes like the North Coast 500 by bicycle or campervan.
Events like the World Travel Market (WTM) in London and ITB Berlin are massive global travel trade fairs where sustainable tourism has its own dedicated sections. Eco-lodges, responsible tour operators and certification bodies all exhibit here, connecting with travel agents and tour operators who then sell these products to the public.
The GSTC was founded in 2010 as a global initiative to promote sustainable travel and tourism. It works with the United Nations, governments, businesses and NGOs. Its main job is to set the global standards for what counts as "sustainable" in tourism covering destinations, hotels and tour operators. The GSTC doesn't certify businesses directly; instead, it accredits the certification bodies that do. This creates a reliable, trustworthy global system. Over 100 countries are involved in GSTC-related activities, making it the closest thing tourism has to a universal sustainability rulebook.
The internet has transformed how sustainable tourism products are found and booked. A tourist in Birmingham can now research, compare and book an eco-lodge in Kenya in under ten minutes. Several platforms have been built specifically to make sustainable travel easier to find.
Bookdifferent.com is a hotel booking site that shows the carbon footprint of each hotel and donates part of its commission to carbon offset projects. Kind Traveller is a UK-based platform where every booking includes a donation to a local charity at the destination. These platforms make it easy for tourists to choose sustainably without extra effort.
Many airlines and travel companies now offer carbon calculators so tourists can see the environmental cost of their journey. EasyJet and British Airways both offer carbon offset options at the point of booking. While offsets are not a perfect solution, they raise awareness and generate funds for reforestation and renewable energy projects.
Intrepid Travel is an Australian adventure travel company founded in 1988. It now operates in over 100 countries and carries around 250,000 travellers per year. What makes it stand out is that sustainability is not an add-on it's built into every part of the business.
Intrepid became carbon neutral in 2010 one of the first large travel companies to do so. It uses local transport, avoids large cruise ships and has banned single-use plastics across all its tours. It also removed elephant riding from all its itineraries in 2014 after reviewing animal welfare standards.
Over 90% of Intrepid's local leaders (guides) are from the destination country. The company has a strict policy against child labour and supports the Intrepid Foundation, which has donated over $10 million to community projects worldwide since 2002.
Intrepid deliberately uses locally-owned accommodation, restaurants and transport providers to keep money in the local economy. It publishes an annual impact report showing exactly where money goes a level of transparency that builds genuine trust with customers.
Denmark has one of the highest concentrations of Green Key certified businesses in the world. The Danish Outdoor Council manages the scheme nationally and it covers everything from beach hotels to city hostels. Danish tourism promotion actively uses the Green Key logo in its marketing, so tourists immediately recognise it when searching for accommodation.
The result? Tourists choosing Denmark for a sustainable holiday can filter accommodation searches by Green Key status, making the sustainable choice the easy choice. This is a perfect example of how availability and promotion working together creates real change in tourist behaviour.
It's not enough to just have sustainable products tourists need to know about them and be able to access them easily. Think of it like this: if a supermarket stocks organic food but hides it in a corner with no signs, nobody buys it. But if it's on the front shelf with clear labels and a good price, sales go up. Sustainable tourism works the same way. Availability means the products exist and are accessible. Promotion means people know about them and are encouraged to choose them.
Governments play a huge role not just in setting rules, but in actively promoting sustainable tourism options. They can do this through funding, legislation, tourism campaigns and partnerships with the private sector.
Bhutan doesn't just talk about sustainable tourism it enforces it through government policy. Every tourist (except Indian, Bangladeshi and Maldivian nationals) must pay a Sustainable Development Fee (SDF) of $100 per night (reduced from $200 in 2022 to encourage post-pandemic recovery). This fee funds free healthcare, free education and environmental conservation across the country.
Tourists must also book through a licensed Bhutanese tour operator, which guarantees that money stays in the local economy and that visitors are guided responsibly. Bhutan's entire tourism model is built around the concept of "High Value, Low Impact" fewer tourists spending more money, rather than mass tourism. This is one of the most complete examples of a government using policy to make sustainable tourism the only option available.
Sustainable tourism only works if tourists can find it, afford it and trust it. That means businesses need to create genuine sustainable products, certification schemes need to verify them and governments and tourism organisations need to shout about them loudly and clearly. From eco-lodges in Jordan to cycling routes in Denmark, from Intrepid Travel's impact reports to Bhutan's government-enforced sustainability fees the world of sustainable tourism products and services is growing fast. Your job as a geographer is to understand why it's growing, how it's promoted and what the real-world examples look like.