For the third year running, the winners of the GDS-Index awards were announced during the Closing Ceremony of the ICCA Congress, held in 2018 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The prestigious awards showcase the remarkable sustainability initiatives of convention bureaus and destination marketing organisations from across the globe, with the aim of sharing best practices to inspire the meeting and events industry.
The industry is increasingly beginning to recognise that even though tourism has an important impact on a country’s economy or destination marketing, it equally impacts the environment through its extensive use of resources needed to sustain the needs of its visitors and local communities. The Global Destination Sustainability Index works with convention bureaus and destination marketing organisations to address this issue, allowing them to maximise the positive impacts of tourism whilst balancing the negative impacts through a sustainable approach to strategy. The GDS-Index is also a very useful partner for associations who wish to understand to what extent a destination will be able to support them on their sustainability journey.
The GDS-Index is a collaborative business initiative created to help Destinations and Convention Bureaus, drive the adoption, promotion and recognition of responsible practices in the business tourism and events industry. The GDS-Index does this by measuring and comparing the social and environmental sustainability strategies, policies and performance of participating destinations and by sharing best practice from around the world.
