GSTC Market Access Program
GSTC promotes market access for certified sustainable businesses to travelers and travel providers of hotels/accommodations, with a strong preference for those businesses certified by GSTC-Accredited Certification Bodies (accredited certifications). Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) are responding to market demand for sustainable product, external ESG reporting requirements, and to their internal CSR and sustainability goals, by seeking methods to provide easy and clear access to sustainable products and services to the marketplace of travelers. OTAs wish to highlight with a mark and provide their users a filter to identify “sustainable” hotels based on a reliable source of information.
Travellers increasingly seek eco-friendly and socially responsible options, and incorporating accommodations with accredited certification into the OTA’s platform can present to customers with a trusted selection of sustainable choices, responding to the growing market demand for sustainable products.
Through the Market Access Program, our OTA Partners get regular updates on the certified and verified accommodations as we collect this information from Certification Bodies and Recognized Standard Owners (RSO) on a regular basis. Businesses certified by a GSTC-Accredited Certification Body, meeting all the GSTC Criteria (or a GSTC-Recognized Standard), have the highest level of assurance and credibility available. With an accredited certification, customers and buyers are assured that the business was certified in a credibly verified procedure in a transparent, impartial, and competent manner.
Eligibility to Participate in the Market Access Program (MAP)
The GSTC Market Access Program (MAP) currently has two levels of filtering eligibility:
Main Filter: Accredited Certification
Hotels/accommodations certified by a GSTC-Accredited Certification Body (having “accredited certification”) are and remain eligible for inclusion in the program.
In the same manner that hotels seek 3rd-party certification in order to verify their claims with external, independent, neutral, and competent auditing/certification programs, the Certification Bodies that provide those services can and should seek 3rd-party accreditation to validate and certify their claims. Accreditation involves intensive and open scrutiny of the processes of certification in order to determine that those processes and decisions comply with international norms for quality and impartiality. This is the highest level of credible external auditing; the accreditation of certification. In some other sectors, accreditation is a recruitment by national governments and standards bureaus.
Second Filter: conditional verification to certain standards
GSTC currently supports an additional second lower level filter, making eligible those hotels/accommodations verified by Standard Owners that use a GSTC-Recognized Standard (i.e., a standard that formally includes within it the GSTC Criteria). The inclusion of the second filter is a temporary measure to boost and establish the Market Access Program while recognizing the sustainability efforts of the accommodations that have been verified by Recognized Standard Owners.
Only Recognized Standards that are used for certification and meet the needed requirements are included in the list of sustainable accommodations (such as stating that a 3rd-party on-site audit is mandatory). Not all Standards that have obtained GSTC-Recognition are part of the Market Access Program.
To remove the extensive confusion and lack of understanding of these terms, on February 1st, 2023, GSTC announced an amendment to requirements for achieving and maintaining GSTC-Recognized Standard status, providing 23 months for affected parties to adjust as they wish, as follows.
To maintain the GSTC-Recognized status of the standards from 1st January 2025, owners of existing Recognized Standards used for “certification” need to have formally open an application to pursue accreditation or enter into the arrangement with GSTC whereby they act as a “Certification Scheme” by December 31, 2024. See here for more details. The list of standards that fulfill the eligibility and maintain their GSTC-Recognized Standard status has been updated on 1st January 2025.
GSTC guides participating OTAs and distributors use filter #1 indefinitely, and launch their program to include filter #2 with a phase-out plan that states estimated or fixed dates of removal of filter #2. For example, in 2024 an OTA might announce that filter #2 terminates on December 31, 2025.
Some of the benefits of the Market Access Program are:
Examples of OTAs Feature Sustainable Accommodations
Below are examples of how various OTAs in the Market Access Program showcase certified hotels on their websites.
easyJet Holidays
As part of the easyJet holidays sustainability strategy, Holiday Better, the package holiday provider offers a Certified Sustainable range of hotels to its customers, which supports promotion of the GSTC Market Access Program. As part of its aim to make more sustainable holidays mainstream, easyJet holidays supports customers to make better holiday choices, which is why it labels its Certified Sustainable range, as well as enabling customers to filter for only certified hotels during their search, and listing their range on this page to see all Certified Sustainable options. Certification numbers are rapidly growing amongst the easyJet holidays offering, meaning customers can select from thousands of popular hotels across their range of Europe’s most loved beach and city destinations.
Booking.com
Jet2holidays
Trip.com
Trip.com has introduced a new feature that highlights sustainable hotels and accommodations certified by a GSTC-Accredited Certification Body. This initiative aims to make it easier for travelers to identify and book sustainable hotels/accommodations, promoting responsible tourism choices.
By showcasing properties with accredited certification, Trip.com not only responds to the growing demand for sustainable travel options, but also provides an added incentive for hotels to pursue sustainability certifications. The partnership between Trip.com and GSTC emphasizes the growing importance of sustainability practices within the travel industry, empowering travelers to easily identify and choose sustainable accommodations. By joining the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), Trip.com Group is committed to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The partnership with GSTC builds on Trip.com Group’s broader commitment to sustainability, which includes lower-emission travel solutions across transportation modes—cars, trains, and flights—and other initiatives aimed at promoting more sustainable travel.
Traveloka
Transat
Tablet Hotels
Hotelbeds
AMEX GBT
Hostelworld
EXO Travels’ approach on highlighting certified hotels
For GSTC certified hotels /hotels that have obtained GSTC certification, hotels may upload their valid certificate and receive a “High Confidence” status without undergoing the full audit process, as EXO adhere to the GSTC questionnaire criteria sets. For this case, EXO conducts a “light” audit and still ask them to be on the Hotel Resilient platform to get their self assessment scores but we do not ask for as much evidence as for the ones that are not certified. Hotels have to upload their GSTC valid certification and complete all questions to the platform.
For hotels with other sustainability certificates, EXO believes hotels should have the supporting data and documentation readily available. In this kind of cases, EXO request the contracting team who is own hotel accountability in each destination to convince and encourage hotels to upload files to the platform properly.
tiket Green is part of tiket.com’s effort in supporting sustainable tourism, by empowering travelers to support eco-conscious accommodations and make responsible travel choices. It is a feature that provides customers with access to accommodations that have implemented green practices. Based on six key indicators adapted from the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) standards, tiket Green ensures that accommodations meet tiket.com‘s sustainability standard. These indicators include: food management, water management, energy conservation, waste management, shelter and biodiversity protection, and raising awareness of sustainable practices.
In collaboration with GSTC through the Market Access Program, accommodations that are GSTC Certified will automatically be part of tiket Green, enhancing their visibility on the tiket.com platform and serves as recognition for their sustainability efforts. tiketGreen label can be easily found on the tiket.com platform. Customers can apply the “tiket Green” filter to search for eco-friendly accommodations. The label is also displayed below the property image, offering a more convenient and user-friendly experience.