Promoting Sustainable Tourism in the Alps - A Systematic Assessment of Major Certification Schemes for Sustainable Tourism Destinations

Abstract

Tourism destinations increasingly turn to sustainability certification to strike a balance between safeguarding their natural and cultural resources and developing a long-term tourism strategy. One prominent contemporary European tourist attraction that is particularly affected by growing visitor pressures and accelerated anthropogenic climate change are the Alps. While demand for certification is rising, the plethora of schemes, most characterised by a narrow understanding of sustainability, leaves practitioners clueless when choosing which one to adopt. Despite their growing relevance, systematic assessments of the potential effectiveness of sustainable tourism destination certification schemes are limited. Furthermore, most scientific studies show a minimal understanding of potential effectiveness, examining merely the certification standard with a lack of investigation of the certification body management or standard indicator quality. Hence, this research contributes to closing these knowledge gaps and provides recommendations for practitioners. Firstly, a comprehensive, theory-based assessment framework was developed to define the international benchmark level for the potential effectiveness of such schemes. The framework is composed of three levels (certification body, certification standard & standard indicators) and four categories (certification management, impact, process & quality) and encompasses performance, management and quality criteria that capture the theoretical knowledge base regarding the potential effectiveness of sustainability certification. Drawing on theories of sustainability, governance, management and indicator development, this research identified relevant theoretical domains for each category and developed assessment criteria based on international standards and academic literature. Secondly, three major destination certification schemes were selected and assessed based on the assessment framework. The findings show that none of the schemes lives up to the international benchmark level of potential effectiveness. On average, the schemes demonstrate the highest degree of potential effectiveness in the process and quality categories. Impact categories are covered less comprehensively, with a particular underrepresentation of prosperity issues. Moreover, the findings suggest that global schemes tend to cover a wide breadth of criteria, while local, more context-specific schemes show a smaller breadth. Finally, the empirical cases indicate an apparent lack of theory-based mountain-specific criteria, emphasising a clear avenue for future research. Hence, based on performance, management, and quality criteria, the potential effectiveness of certification schemes for sustainable tourism destinations does not meet the international benchmark level defined by leading international standards and academic literature. By extending the understanding of potential effectiveness in this context, this research enables maximising the contribution of destination certification for promoting sustainable tourism development in the Alps and beyond.