The Central Coast and Coffs Coast both scored points in the list of the Top 100 Global Green Destinations for 2022.
Each year, Green Destinations brings together entries from around the world to share and promote stories that tell innovative and effective initiatives and projects from destinations working towards more sustainable development globally.
Central Coast honored for its People Power story: Rebuilding a region with an ECO at heart, shared his goal of achieving a two-year ‘ECO Journey’, discovering a collection of hidden stories and green-hearted businesses across the region, including a sustainable world of breeding oysters, launching recyclable cup systems in 30 cafes, installing accessible beach mats in the summer, rebuilding farmland for native bird species and much more.
The destination story shares with the world how small, people-supported gestures make up one big movement towards creating a more sustainable destination.
The Coffs Coast Story entry, Two Path Strong, celebrated the Aboriginal tourism of the Coffs Coast and the rich culture that underpinned the establishment of the first bilingual school of Aboriginal languages in New South Wales, Australia.
Known as the ‘common people’, the Gumbaynggirr people are widely known for giving plentiful food, waterways and knowledge to others, so it is fitting that they have received international recognition for their success in sustainable tourism and indigenous education.
Now in its eighth year, the Global Top 100 Green Destinations list serves as a showcase for inspiring ‘good practice’ stories from destinations around the world to be shared among destination managers, tour operators and visitors to facilitate knowledge sharing in the tourism industry.
“By telling their stories, DMOs can be recognized and recognized for the solutions they have implemented in response to their challenges and problems,” Green Destinations said in a statement.
“With the tourism sector facing very difficult times in the past years, the resilience of these destinations should be celebrated and hard work to become more responsible.”
However, the Top 100 panel, chaired by Albert Salman, President of Green Destinations, stressed that selecting the Top 100 list does not mean that a destination is sustainable.
Instead, the selection acknowledges that the destination was previously selected based on minimum compliance with the essential criteria of the Green Destinations Standard and was selected in the list based on an evaluation of the Good Practice Story.
All selected destinations were also assessed against the Green Destinations Core criteria, from the Green Destinations Standard - recognized by the GSTC, which have been identified as the Keys to Sustainability Performance.
Applications are evaluated by a team of Top 100 evaluators, country experts and green destination partners coordinated by Green Destinations. Criteria such as quality, portability, level of innovation in the stories and the presence of all sustainability pillars were taken into account in the selection.
The competition is held under the auspices of Top 100 Partnerships, with support from the Future of Tourism Alliance, with special contributions from: Green Destinations, QualityCoast, Travelife, ITB Berlin, Asian Ecotourism Network, Ecotourism Australia, Global Ecotourism Network, Sustainable First.
Featured Image: Giingan Gumbaynggirr Cultural Experience