For a sustainable Singapore, Green Destinations’ regional lead picks CRTS

Singapore’s private-sec­tor tour­ism stake­hold­ers, from small- and medi­um-sized busi­nesses to glob­al brands, will increas­ingly pur­sue sus­tain­ab­il­ity cer­ti­fic­a­tion over the com­ing years, accord­ing to Kev­in Phun, founder of the Centre for Respons­ible Tour­ism Singa­pore (CRTS).

Mr Phun is more bullish about the oppor­tun­it­ies for a sus­tain­able Singa­pore since Susan San­tos de Cárde­n­as, Green Des­tin­a­tions’ South­east Asia Part­ner & Rep­res­ent­at­ive, picked CRTS to be the offi­cial coun­try rep­res­ent­at­ive in Singa­pore for their Good Travel Program. 

Green shoots for a responsible and sustainable Singapore

It is a good time for Green Des­tin­a­tions to part­ner with the Centre for Respons­ible Tour­ism Singa­pore (CRTS) to enter the Singa­pore mar­ket, accord­ing to Ooi Tiat Jin, CRTS’ recently-appoin­ted Strategy and Part­ner­ships Consultant.

Mr Ooi said that Singa­pore’s gov­ern­ment and tour­ism bod­ies were now act­ively pur­su­ing sus­tain­able tour­ism practices. 

Evid­ence for this includes:

• A nation­al com­mit­ment: Singa­pore has a nation­al plan, the Singa­pore Green Plan 2030, which out­lines goals for redu­cing the envir­on­ment­al impacts of the city.
• Industry col­lab­or­a­tion: The Singa­pore Tour­ism Board (STB) works with busi­nesses through its Tour­ism Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Pro­gramme (TSP) to encour­age sus­tain­able prac­tices. The TSP includes fund­ing, train­ing, and certification.
• Accom­mod­a­tion: The STB and the Singa­pore Hotel Asso­ci­ation (SHA) have a man­date to see the hotel sec­tor achieve sus­tain­ab­il­ity cer­ti­fic­a­tion and CO2 emis­sions track­ing by 2030. This includes redu­cing energy and water use, and min­im­ising waste.
• MICE: The STB and the MICE sec­tor have a sim­il­ar man­date; sus­tain­ab­il­ity cer­ti­fic­a­tion and CO2 emis­sions track­ing by 2030.

In line with CRTS’ mission 

CRTS’ founder Mr Phun wel­comed the oppor­tun­ity to rep­res­ent Green Des­tin­a­tions’ ‘Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Solu­tions for Busi­nesses’, adding that sus­tain­ab­il­ity and its cer­ti­fic­a­tion was “rarely talked about” in Singa­pore until very recently.

Singa­pore is a pros­per­ous city state whose inbound tour­ism stake­hold­ers might be for­giv­en for think­ing they don’t have to con­sider con­cepts such as ‘eco­tour­ism’ or ‘pro-poor tourism’.

Kev­in foun­ded The Centre for Respons­ible Tour­ism Singa­pore (CRTS) to remind them.

“Just because Singa­pore is a wealthy city state, it doesn’t mean we should ignore the prin­ciples of sus­tain­able and respons­ible tour­ism at home,” he said. 

“We have wild nat­ur­al spaces on our island and under­priv­ileged groups in our soci­ety — neither are typ­ic­ally asso­ci­ated with Singa­pore, even by many loc­als — not to men­tion our rich cul­tur­al her­it­age to nur­ture and protect.

“And, of course, des­tin­a­tions glob­ally, as well as Singa­por­ean trav­el­lers, stand to bene­fit greatly from a more con­sciously respons­ible approach to tour­ism,” he added.

Why Green Destinations?

Mr Phun said that Green Des­tin­a­tions’ Good Travel Seal — Sus­tain­ab­il­ity Solu­tions for Busi­nesses — is aligned with Glob­al Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Coun­cil’s GSTC‑I standards. 

Accord­ing to Green Des­tin­a­tions, its Good Travel Seal is “more than just a certification”. 

“[I]t is a sus­tain­ab­il­ity sup­port pro­gram for all tour­ism and travel-related busi­nesses and facil­it­ies, designed to be highly feas­ible and very afford­able for micro, small, and medi­um-sized enter­prises (MSMEs). It focuses on prac­tic­al require­ments that are easy for smal­ler busi­nesses to manage.”

Collaborate with CRTS

“The CRTS is happy to dis­cuss col­lab­or­a­tions with like-minded com­pan­ies to pur­sue growth in sus­tain­able tour­ism in Singa­pore and through­out South­east Asia,” Mr Phun said.

Con­tact Kev­in and co, at kevin@crts.asia

Con­tents ^

About the Centre for Responsible Tourism Singapore

The Centre for Respons­ible Tour­ism Singa­pore was formed from a pas­sion for espous­ing sus­tain­ab­il­ity in tour­ism, for­ging part­ner­ships between the dif­fer­ent stakeholders.

CRTS was foun­ded by Kev­in Phun, a respons­ible tour­ism advoc­ate, lec­turer, and prac­ti­tion­er, who is driv­en by the desire to cre­ate respons­ible and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment in tourism.

Learn more about CRTS.

Read all of CRTS’ “GT” Part­ner messages

Featured image (top of post)

“I was on a lay­over in Singa­pore and decided to vis­it the Super Tree Grove at Gar­dens by the Bay. I arrived in the late after­noon and the light­ing was bril­liant. This is taken from the walk­way con­nect­ing the trees. Just an amaz­ing site to vis­it, espe­cially at sun­set.” _ Coleen Rivas (CC0) via Unsplash. “GT” added “GREEN Singapore”.

Con­tents ^