Executive Secretariat for Integral Development (SEDI)

Department of Economic Development 

Sustainable Destinations Alliance for the Americas (SDAA)

STEN

I. Background:

- On March 27, 2014 the Sustainable Destinations Alliance for the Americas (SDAA) launched an initiative created to help tourism destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean to safeguard their natural and cultural assets, while enhancing the life of communities and securing a vibrant regional economy.  

The list of SDAA partners (public and private institutions) include: the Organization of American States, Caribbean Tourism Organization, Central American Tourism Integration Secretariat, global NGO Sustainable Travel International, leading cruise vacation company Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., and the United States Government through the United States Permanent Mission to the Organization of American States.

- On September 4th, 2014 in St. Michael, Barbados the Sustainable Destinations Alliance for the Americas (SDAA) announced its first seven destination partners: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Honduras, Jamaica, and Nicaragua.

II. Project:

- The OAS and private and public sectors unite to promote sustainable tourism in latin America and the Caribbean.

- The SDAA offers to the seven destintation partners, support in the form of a "Sustainable Destination Toolkit" to enrich the lives of the people in these destinations and to protect the region for many generations to come. The Toolkit includes: a destination assessment, an action agenda with short and long term solutions, online training courses for capacity building, a destination monitoring system to ensure on-going success, and marketing support.

- Destinations will have access to an online sustainable tourism course entitled “Sustainable Tourism Professionals”, designed to facilitate the implementation of sustainability practices, and to a destination sustainability monitoring framework called SMART, which will support the tracking of key performance metrics.

III. More information:

Visit: www.sustainabletravel.org/SDAA