Managers’ perceptions of the benefits and challenges of destination certification in Australia

Abstract

Stakeholders in tourism destinations face a major challenge in how to plan and manage tourism in their areas. To address this, public, private, and community organisations have been looking for models that may help them manage the negative impacts of visitation while increasing the positive impacts for stakeholders. One framework that has been adopted in various destinations is certification, though very few academic studies explore the benefits and challenges they create. To address this gap in literature, semi-structured interviews are being conducted with managers from the eight certified destinations in Australia to explore the effectiveness of such programs. Preliminary findings suggest that direct outcomes, such as, creating a baseline for measuring the environmental and social impacts created in a tourism destination, plus indirect outcomes such as collaboration amongst stakeholders and community engagement are major benefits of certification. In contrast, the complex data required to meet certification criteria and the diversity of stakeholders involved were major challenges.