EUROPE: The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) has announced that RoyalCert has gained the GSTC-Accredited Certification Body status.
RoyalCert is an international certification body, which operates across more than 40 countries, offering inspection, training, assessment and certification to a wide range of industries, including the tourism and hotel sector.
According to the GSTC, the purpose of the GSTC Accreditation for a Certification Body is “to provide a higher level of assurance and reward genuine practitioners of sustainable tourism, which builds confidence and credibility with consumers”.
The GSTC-Accredited status means that a Certification Body – such as RoyalCert – has been verified to be conducting proper certification of businesses, like hotels or tour operators, and following processes and procedures detailed in the GSTC Accreditation Manual.
The Accreditation process for RoyalCert took around one month with GSTC looking at how the Certification Body operates.
GSTC CEO, Randy Durband said: “Accreditation is an intense and intrusive review of a Certification Body’s management, entire auditing process, and certification-decision-making process. Gaining this mark of compliance to the GSTC Accreditation Manual is rigorous and is designed specifically for tourism and hospitality, without a peer. We applaud RoyalCert for opening themselves up to this level of external review, for which their client businesses are entitled to market favour.”
RoyalCert will now enjoy the kudos which comes with being a GSTC-Accredited Certification Body, and be recognised worldwide as having a credibly verified procedure. Hotels and tour operators certified by RoyalCert will also be able to display a unique GSTC logo with a traceable code.
Christos Markopoulos, general manager RoyalCert said: “We are glad that our Turkey office is the first locally accredited Certification Body in the country to achieve GSTC Accreditation. Even though RoyalCert holds multiple accreditations for management system certification & inspections services, preparing ourselves to meet GSTC requirements took dedication and time. We are glad to have taken this step and look forward to contributing to the tourism industry’s journey to a more sustainable future.”
The GSTC Accreditation of RoyalCert, which has its headquarters in Germany, is for certifying hotels and tour operators in Turkey, Germany, Italy, Greece, United Arab Emirates, Thailand, and the Netherlands.
You can read more about the GSTC and the accreditation and certification processes for sustainable tourism here.
Image: Scott Graham on Unsplash