The good news for the city continues. On Thursday, March 9, the Athens of Ecuador received the “Recertification of Sustainable Destination TOURCERT Cuenca 2023”.
“Cuenca is experiencing one of its best moments in tourism. During our 4 years of management, it has received more than 68 awards in different areas, with tourism being one of the most important,” said the Mayor of the city Pedro Palacios Ullauri, after receiving the plaque from Veronica Munoz, representative of TOURCERT in Ecuador.
Palacios also said that, on behalf of the city, he proudly receives this recertification, but he feels more proud of the private sector companies and in itself of the productive chain that has joined this process, because they are the ones who make and energize the destination.
“I predict that this recertification of Sustainable Destination and the recognition of the 20 companies participating in the process, will spread to more establishments and thus, continue to be the favorite destination of Ecuadorians, as we have been for two consecutive years,” concluded the authority.
What did we do to achieve this?
María Angélica León, executive director of the Municipal Tourism Foundation, said that since 2017 the Foundation, in charge of tourism management in the city, began an improvement process to certify Cuenca as a Sustainable Destination through the international certification company TourCert. After a great work, in 2018 the first certification was achieved that aimed to define a prioritized product in the historic center of Cuenca. The certification expired in 2019.
Therefore, León explained that since that year (2019), the Municipal Tourism Foundation for Cuenca, began again with the process of “Recertification of Sustainable Destination TOURCERT Cuenca 2023”.
In this year came the COVID-19 pandemic, so the processes were paused, resuming work in 2020 with a planning of actions aimed at verifying compliance with the activities and processes established for the recertification of the destination. In 2021, the action plan was drawn up and implemented to achieve recertification, with advice, accompaniment and training to the technicians of the OGD (Municipal Tourism Foundation) and the representatives of tourism companies and the production chain, associated with the process.
Once this step and diagnosis was completed, together in 2022, technicians from the Tourism Foundation and TourCert inspected the canton, to verify that Cuenca correctly implemented sustainable practices in the destination, including accessibility, environment, environmental and environmental issues. social responsibility and strengthening of public and private management for the benefit of its inhabitants and visitors.
Likewise, the 20 companies in the housing, food and beverages, tourism operations and museums sector, associated with the recertification process, were visited to verify the compliance of sustainable actions in their facilities such as: Social responsibility, health, hygiene, cleanliness, safety and quality of service. (list later in bulletin)
Finally, the results were visible at each stage and the city achieved the “Recertification of Sustainable Destination TOURCERT Cuenca 2023”.
The “Recertification of Sustainable Destination TOURCERT Cuenca 2023”, is a great achievement and benefit for the city, as it strategically promotes an intense exchange with stakeholders and, in particular, that partner companies actively participate in the process with key parameters focused on the quality of products and services, customer orientation, sustainable use of resources, accessibility and offers available in ambi-friendly mobility
But what does Cuenca gain?
Positioning as an internationally certified destination.
Contents of the switchStrengthening of conservation efforts and environmental practices at the destination.
That the tourism sector and its value chain optimize continuous improvement processes.
Obtaining this recertification has been a joint effort, which is maintained from an active cooperation based on a joint work of institutions, associated companies and all the actors that are part of the destination.
¿Qué es TOURCERT?
It is an international certifier that advises and accompanies companies and tourist destinations in the implementation of sustainable and successful business practices. In Latin America, only 6 destinations are qualified and certified as a TourCert Sustainable Destination, one of them is Cuenca Ecuador.
Know the sustainable establishments that have been certified
¡Datos importantes!
In 2021 Booking carried out a study in Europe of sustainable destinations after the pandemic, in which it was determined that visitors prefer to plan trips to sustainable destinations and biosecurity, so this certification places Cuenca on the radar of world travelers.
TourCert’s certification program for sustainable tourism destinations is based on global sustainable tourism criteria (GSTC-Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria) and, additionally, is based on the European system of tourism indicators for sustainable management of the destination, under the European tourism indicators system (ETIS European Tourism Indicators System for Sustainable Destination Management).
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