The Plitvice Lakes National Park as a tourist destination has been awarded the silver Green Destinations Award for sustainability, making it the first Croatian national park to win this award
Plitvice Lakes, 20 September – Following successful completion of the demanding certification process following the Green Destinations model, the Plitvice Lakes National Park as a green tourist destination was awarded the silver Green Destinations Award for sustainability. This made Plitvice Lakes the first Croatian national park to have won this prestigious award as a result of applying the principles of sustainability in practice. In Croatia, apart from the Plitvice Lakes National Park, two other tourist destinations can boast of having won the award – Međimurje County and the town of Mali Lošinj.
The Green Destinations Award promotes sustainable tourist destinations at an international level. It is a comprehensive certification process for worldwide sustainable destinations that includes four components of sustainable development – social, environmental, economic, and cultural. There are several levels of the Green Destinations Awards, depending on the number of points scored during the certification process. The tourist destinations participating in the certification can thus be awarded the bronze, silver, gold, or platinum. So far, more than 120 certificates have been awarded to tourist destinations across the world, while in Croatia, only three destinations got certified following the Green Destinations model. Apart from Plitvice Lakes as a tourist destination, only Međimurje County and the town of Mali Lošinj have won the Green Destinations Award. The Plitvice Lakes National Park will officially receive the award at the global Green Destinations conference to take place in Tallinn, in October.
This certificate will provide many benefits to the Plitvice Lakes National Park and all the surrounding destinations – from increasing their visibility on the global tourism market to including our destinations in world guides and presenting them at large tourism fairs. At the same time, it is a tool for evaluation and improvement in terms of sustainable destination management. The certification process following the Green Destinations model is long and it required continuous monitoring as well as dedicated work of all stakeholders. I am extremely pleased that we finished it successfully and showed that by respecting and applying sustainability principles and with the excellent cooperation of all stakeholders, we could make our destination more responsible and more sustainable for us, but also for future generations, said Tomislav Kovačević, General Manager of the Plitvice Lakes National Park Public Institution.
This prestigious award is handed out by Green Destinations, a global non-profit organisation based in the Netherlands. The goal of this organisation is to improve the sustainable development of destinations and stakeholders in tourism as well as to promote their visibility at the global level. The Green Destinations organisation develops sustainable and responsible tourism based on the principles of the United Nations and the goals of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, while enjoying an exceptionally high reputation among tourists and stakeholders in the development of tourism in terms of quality. The Green Destinations organisation cooperates with over 500 destinations worldwide and is present in more than 90 countries.
Sustainable management in tourism creates a positive and mutually beneficial relationship between tourists, the local community, and the space where tourism activity takes place. Through the application of sustainable management practices, Green Destinations strives to help destinations care for the environment, preserve cultural goods, achieve economic sustainability, and benefit the local population while taking into account all the elements that affect the competitiveness of the tourist destination. The transformation towards sustainable management of a tourist destination is a long process that Croatia only just embarked on, and in order to see it through, it is important to engage all stakeholders of tourism development, be it at the level of individual destinations or at state level, stressed dr. sc. Katarina Miličević, CEO of Tourism Lab, is the exclusive representative of Green Destinations in Croatia and in the Herzegovina region.
The methodology and prescribed quality standards for the successful completion of the certification following the Green Destinations model are extremely high. The award is not only difficult to win, but it also needs to be reconfirmed. This is why all tourist destinations that receive this award need to undergo the process of re-evaluation every two years.
