La implementación de las normas técnicas sectoriales en turismo sostenible en Colombia

Since June 2005, the Externado de Colombia University was designated by the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, through an agreement signed with Icontec, as the coordinating entity of the Sectoral Unit for Standardization in Sustainable Tourism. As a result of the work carried out, eight sectoral technical standards have been designed for destinations and tourism service providers.

After ten years of creating the Sectoral Technical Standards in Sustainable Tourism, the Tourism and Society research group of the Faculty of Tourism and Hotel Business Administration of the Externado University of Colombia analyzes the results of their implementation not only in service providers. but in certified tourist destinations in Colombia.

The book presents the results of this research, showing, for example, the vision that service providers and tourist destinations have about the requirements defined in the standards. Likewise, the main benefits in the three dimensions of sustainability: environmental, sociocultural and economic, and in quality improvement. Also, the difficulties faced during the certification process are studied.

The research, in addition to the conclusions, includes recommendations for both providers and communities as well as decision makers, in order to improve standards and the certification process in the search for sustainability in tourism.