GSTC certification and local communities: evidence from the perspective of successful first mover DMOs

The paper discusses three first mover destination management organisations (DMOs) that have successfully involved local communities in achieving a common goal: Global Sustainable Tourism Council certification (specifically, the GSTC Destination Criteria, GSTC-D). The research aims to analyse the role played by the DMO in obtaining GSTC-D certification and the activities subsequently initiated to keep it. How did DMOs successfully achieve certification and what did and are they doing to involve the community? Exploratory research has been carried out to answer this question. The study adopts a qualitative approach and focuses on three destinations which were among the first in the world to obtain GSTC-D certification. Desk analysis and in-depth interviews with the DMOs took place between June and November 2022. Three main research focuses (all from the perspective of the DMOs involved) have been outlined: why and how GSTC-D certification was obtained, the challenges of maintaining GSTC-D certification, expectations post certification. The research confirms the pivotal role of DMOs and their capacity to work within non-hierarchical multi-stakeholder contexts. GSTC-D certification should be understood as a factor which facilitates and strengthens community-centred participatory processes in fragmented environments. The research adopts an inductive approach to analyse three DMOs that have successfully obtained GSTC-D. The research contributes to the wider scientific debate on the new role of DMOs and the identification of factors that foster participation in community destinations. Focusing on the role of DMOs, the research tackles a topic which has not yet been subject to in-depth analysis from a managerial perspective.