European Sustainable Tourism Labels: A Tool to Inform and Educate Consumers Sofia Reino Project Funded by The Carnegie Trust of Universities for Scotland

Tourism Eco-labels A set of standards of sustainable tourism practices, which are regularly assessed by an external advisor, and which enables industry benchmarking. (Font, 2001).

Whose efforts should come first...? Businesses’ Tourists’ Harris (2007) Manaktola & Jauhari (2007)

Methodology & Methods Constructivism, exploratory. Semi-structured Interviews - V ISIT Members:

Main Findings – Drivers of Adoption Consumers are considered the key initiator of sustainable tourism practices.... however, the level of communication of these organisations with consumers is limited.

Nature, Background Mostly region-specific (except Green Key) Small NGOs – max. 16 employees Fee and/or EU funded Fees from £13 (Latvian) to £2,500 (Swiss) Both rated and non-rated labels Mainly environmental concern but moving towards integrating social aspects

Development Process Self-developed, informed on other schemes Unsystematic procedures (except Swiss – ISO) In-house experts mainly except Latvian No consumer representation

Further Research -Understanding Consumers’ Motives + -Generation of more effective material