Green Destinations TOP100 sustainable tourism good practice world competition call

Green Destinations has been organizing the international competition every year since 2014, in which the best destination-level programs related to sustainable tourism are presented. So far, good practices from more than 100 countries have been nominated for the competition, but no Hungarian destination has entered the competition in any year.

The top 100 sustainability programs that stand out from the competition in terms of effectiveness, innovation, inspiration and transferability will be included in the Top 100 list, which will be presented at the Green Destinations annual conference in Estonia in October. 

Each of the TOP100 programs will be eligible for nomination for the Green Destinations Story Awards in 6 topics, which will be announced at ITB Berlin 2024. 

The competition is an excellent first step for destinations (by destinations we mean destinations, not destination management organizations) that want to assess their performance in terms of the principles of sustainable tourism. 

Green Destinations works as a certification body for sustainable tourism of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), and the application process was designed accordingly. In order for a destination to participate in the competition, it must meet 15 basic criteria: 

1. There is a need for a specialist in the destination whose task is to support sustainable tourism
2. There is a need for a continuously developed attraction database
3. There is a need for a destination management strategy, 
4. Research/programme should be available on managing the impacts of tourism on nature
5. Appropriate plans must be in place to preserve the landscape
6. It must be documented that the destination is striving to reduce solid waste
7. It must be documented that the destination pays attention to reducing transport emissions from travel and focuses on this in communication and product development.
8. The destination pays attention to reducing energy consumption
9. The destination consciously works to preserve its tangible cultural heritage
10. The destination consciously focuses on presenting and preserving the intellectual heritage
11. The destination has documented involvement of local stakeholders in the planning processes.  
12. The destination supports the work of local businesses (e.g. through marketing support or other forms)
13. The destination participates in the promotion of local products and services
14. The destination has documented attention to health and safety (e.g., it incorporates appropriate social distancing into visitor management, provides tools that enable the development of mass tourism, etc.)
15. The destination participates in promoting business sustainability

Green Destinations' Hungarian representative, Innotime Hungary Kft., provides support to all applicants in order to comply with the above criteria, and helps destinations in identifying programs to be entered and in writing the entry creatively. In this, it is a great advantage for domestic entrants that an Innotime employee previously led the Top 100 competition for 2 years as a member of the Green Destinations team. 

For those interested in Hungary, the deadline for entries is May 1, 2023. For details of the world competition, please contact Innotime Hungary (csenge.adriany@innotime-hungary.com), as well as https://www.greendestinations.org/top-100-destinations/ website.