The Sustainable Tourism Network of Southern Africa (STNSA) has been relaunched as the Sustainable Tourism Certification Alliance Africa (STCAA).
The decision follows STNSA’s annual meeting at the Hilton Hotel in Durban on May 11.
The meeting was attended by 26 delegates representing six countries from Southern and East Africa, and its main outcome was to re-launch the STNSA as the STCAA with a clearly defined scope of work to create an enabling environment for sustainable tourism certification.
The alliance will focus initially on Southern and East Africa but will, over time, reach out to sustainable tourism certification stakeholders throughout the continent.
Netsai Sibanda, Project Manager on behalf of the alliance secretariat, said: “Stakeholders throughout the region have created the alliance to respond to trends in the sustainable tourism certification environment, including international accreditation, harmonisation, dual certification, mutual recognition and other forms of partnerships. The alliance provides stakeholders with a common voice and a platform for sharing best practice.”
Membership of the alliance will be extended to the following categories of organisations:
• Standard-setting organisations
• Certification programmes
• Tourist boards
• Business development service (BDS) providers
• Regionally focused organisations
Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa (FTTSA) was elected secretariat to the alliance for the next three years.
Greg McManus, MD of the Heritage Environmental Management Company, was elected the alliance Chairperson for 2012-2014. Hazel Milne, Program Co-ordinator of Eco Awards Namibia was elected Vice Chairperson.
Comments | 0
