PDF: Sustainable tourism certification marketing and its contribution to SME market access
Citation
Font, X., Epler-Wood, M., Black, R., & Crabtree, A. (2007). Sustainable tourism certification marketing and its contribution to SME market access. Quality assurance and certification in ecotourism, 5, 147.
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Summary
This chapter reflects on the ability of PAN (Protected Area Network) Parks to deliver
the expected benefits of certification to both national parks and stakeholder tourism
businesses in Europe. The anticipated benefits included an improvement of the product
through bettermanagement and an increased volume of business from certification
branding and marketing. There is some evidence of increased performance in the
field but little evidence of additional trade. This is unfortunate as the expected increase
in business was a key pull factor for applicants. PAN Parks promotes and certifies
stakeholder partnerships for continuous improvement towards sustainability. The
challenges arise from certifying not one firm but a partnership, which makes it harder
to locate responsibilities and identify budgets and mandates. The costs of implementing
the certification programme are high because of different languages, cultures and
geographical constraints, and PAN Parks is presently only reaching the low-hanging
fruit. A period of consolidation and capacity building needs to occur so that economies
of scale reduce the costs of getting new parks to meet the standards and appropriate
marketing benefits are provided for certified parks.
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