Thompson Okanagan, Canada, seeks “Biosphere” status

Thompson Okanagan Tour­ism Asso­ci­ation (TOTA) Pres­id­ent & CEO Glenn Mandzi­uk has signed a “Let­ter of Com­mit­ment” (LoC) with the Respons­ible Tour­ism Insti­tute (RTI).

Sign­ing the LoC with RTI rep­res­ents a step on the road to obtain­ing the Cer­ti­fic­ate, accord­ing to TOTA.

Headquartered in Mad­rid, Spain, RTI pro­motes sus­tain­able tour­ism devel­op­ment and the main­ten­ance and pro­mo­tion of cul­tur­al and nat­ur­al heritage.

RTI main­tains a Memor­andum of Under­stand­ing with UNESCO, is affil­i­ated with the United Nations World Tour­ism Organ­iz­a­tion (UNWTO), and is a mem­ber of the Glob­al Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Coun­cil (GSTC).

The Thompson Okanagan region attracts more than 3.5 mil­lion vis­it­ors and gen­er­ates nearly CA$ 2 bil­lion (~ US$ 1.49 bil­lion) in “dir­ect eco­nom­ic impact” annually.

TOTA chief Mandzi­uk said: “We are blessed with an extraordin­ary tour­ism region in Canada and it is imper­at­ive that we col­lect­ively work to ensure the long-term sus­tain­ab­il­ity of our social, envir­on­ment­al, cul­tur­al and eco­nom­ic ecosystems.

“The oppor­tun­ity to be the first des­tin­a­tion in Canada and the United States to achieve such a pres­ti­gi­ous inter­na­tion­al des­ig­na­tion will be a tre­mend­ous hon­our for the region and recog­nises our com­mit­ment to estab­lish­ing a sus­tain­ab­il­ity charter.”

Thompson Okanagan’s 10-year tour­ism strategy entitled “Embra­cing our Poten­tial” iden­ti­fied a need for a “Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Charter”.

The Thompson Okanagan region of Canada seeks “Bio­sphere” status. Source: TOTA

Des­tin­a­tion Brit­ish Columbia (BC) Pres­id­ent & CEO Mar­sha Walden said: “Des­tin­a­tion BC sup­ports TOTA in their efforts to safe­guard and pre­serve all that is wild and inspir­a­tion­al about their extraordin­ary region, by com­mit­ting to sus­tain­able tourism.

“This is an admir­able com­mit­ment to respons­ibly man­aging the bounty of our eco­nom­ic, social, and cul­tur­al tour­ism assets to delight future gen­er­a­tions of travellers.”

Bio­sphere USA’s Erika Harms said: “Today the tour­ist is more demand­ing, and Bio­sphere Cer­ti­fic­a­tion has the unique dis­tinc­tion of prestige that accred­its com­pli­ance with stand­ards based on the United Nations’ 17 Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals (SDGs), integ­rated in Agenda 2030, which imple­ments the guidelines and recom­mend­a­tions of the World Charter for Sus­tain­able Tour­ism +20.”

That’s quite a mouthful!

Harms con­tin­ued: “Tour­ism must be a glob­al engine, con­trib­ut­ing effect­ively to redu­cing inequal­ity with­in and between coun­tries, pro­mot­ing peace­ful and inclus­ive soci­et­ies, achiev­ing gender equal­ity, and cre­at­ing oppor­tun­it­ies for learn­ing and prosper­ity for all.

“Sus­tain­able tour­ism is the only form of long-term devel­op­ment, and tour­ists demand and value it. It is part of the future.”

RTI cre­ated and developed the Respons­ible Tour­ism Sys­tem (RTS), recog­nised under the Bio­sphere Respons­ible Tour­ism seal.

It is claimed that this sys­tem and/or seal “emerged as the answer to estab­lish the cri­ter­ia for achiev­ing sus­tain­able beha­viour in inter­na­tion­al tour­ist businesses”.

TOTA says it will work intens­ively with its industry and insti­tu­tion­al part­ners over the next six months to earn the Bio­sphere Des­tin­a­tion Certificate.

See all the cur­rently cer­ti­fied entit­ies.