India establishes sustainable tourism criteria
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India’s Ministry of Tourism has released new criteria for sustainable tourism operations.
Under its new Comprehensive Sustainable Tourism Criteria for India (STCI) guidelines, tourism companies in the hotel and tour operations sectors, including those in “beach, backwater, lake and river areas”, will be provided with a series of measures they need to undertake in order to ensure their operations are sustainable.
In the hotel sector, guidelines have been established for development projects and operational hotels, under a series of categories. Hotels at the project stage are required to incorporate various eco-friendly measures including sewage treatment, rainwater harvesting systems, waste management systems, pollution control, the introduction of non-chloro-fluoro carbon (CFC)-emitting equipment for refrigeration and air conditioning, and measures for energy and water conservation.
Operational hotels meanwhile, should be “sustainable and energy-efficient”, and conform to local culture and design.
Tour operators wanting to be approved by the Ministry of Tourism have to sign a commitment towards “safe and honourable tourism and sustainable tourism”, and uphold the “best environment and heritage protection standards” in a way that optimises benefits to the local community and environment.
The new criteria have been drawn up following consultations with tourism stakeholders, following the initial ‘Workshop for Stakeholders on Sustainable Tourism’, which was organised in August 2014.
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