From 7th October to 25th November 2020, tour operators of the Tourism Sector of Kazakhstan received a course about sustainability management. The sustainability course consisted of 8 weekly online sessions, in which sustainability management principles and characteristics were addressed.
Several points related to sustainability in tour operators were covered by the 8-week programme of the course:
- The role and responsibility of the tour operator in relation to consumers, communities, products and services, suppliers and internal operations.
- Supply chain management and its diverse sustainability impacts.
- The creation of excursions and adventures in a responsible way through sustainability standards.
- The sustainability impacts of the clients on the country and how to communicate to customers.
- The key rules of the sustainability marketing: benefit explanation, story communication, sincerity and honesty.
- The problems of greenwashing communication.
- The Global Sustainable Tourism Council´s Criteria to give guidance in sustainability.
Moreover, Travelife sustainability certification system and its 6-step approach to sustainability management were addressed:
- Stage: Engaging your business by appointing sustainability coordinator and other key roles.
- Stage: Conduct a baseline assessment and identify the operations of the company and supply chain components.
- Stage: Development of corporate responsibility and sustainability policy.
- Stage: Implementation of an action plan. In addition, Travelife action planning tool was shown and explained.
- Stage: Monitoring and evaluation of achievements and assessment.
- Stage: Reporting the results and continuous improvement.
