Sustainable Tourism Standards Programme for Panama
As ecotourism grows within Panama’s protected areas and their buffer zones, it is crucial to ensure minimum quality, sustainability and safety standards in the tourism operations. To accomplish this, Sustainable Travel International worked with the government and local stakeholders to create a sustainability standard for Panama’s tourism enterprises.This standard is acting as a regulatory framework for hotels, tour guides, land and marine transportation providers, restaurants, tour operators and community-based tourism enterprises. It allows these tourism providers to assess their operations and practices in relation to a set of indicators on issues that affect the local environment, communities, and cultural heritage, amongst others. The standard will also serve as the basis for certification and will help travelers identify environmentally-friendly and socially responsible businesses.
The activity consisted in designing and implementing a standards programme for ecotourism development in Panama for 6 sectors: accommodation, restaurants, tour operators, tour guides, transport providers and community-based tourism initiatives The 9 months-duration of Sustainable Travel International project was funded by Inter-American Development Bank/GEF and was initiated with the objective of designing and implementing a standards programme for ecotourism development in Panama for 6 sectors: accommodation, restaurants, tour operators, tour guides, transport providers and community-based tourism initiatives. The final set of standards was launched and tested in pilot companies and were brought to the national Norms and Quality standards institution and was transmitted to be approved by decree for its full implementation.
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