Dear
Guests of Hotel Villas Gaia
Hotel
Villas Gaia is participating actively in the Certification
program for Sustainable Tourism (CST), a program
of the Costa Rican Tourism Board (ICT = Instituto
Costaricense Turismo) designed to categorize and
diferenciate tourism business in Costa Rica according
their level of operating in a sustainable model,
in relation with the natural, cultural and social
resources.
What
is the CST all about It is a program that seeks
to categorize and certify each tourism company according
to the degree to which its operations comply to
a model of sustainability. To this effect, four
fundamental aspects are:
1. Physical-biological
parameters. Evaluates the interaction between the
company and its surrounding natural habitat.
2. Infrastructure
and service. Evaluates the management policies
and the operational systems within the company and
its infrastructure.
3. External
clients. Evaluates the interaction of the company
with its clients in terms of how much it allows
and invites the client to be an active contributor
to the company's policies of sustainability.
4. Socio-economic
environment. Evaluates the interaction of the company
with the local communities and the population in
general.
For
each and every one of these items a list of specific
questions was designed to help evaluate how thoroughly
the tourism company complies with a series of standards
previously established for the social, environmental
and economics fields. Each and every one of the
questions refers to an element of sustainability
with which the firm should comply in order to qualify
in any one of the different stages or levels of
fulfillment, which for our purposes we have labeled
"levels". The final rating will be assigned
to the company in question according to the lowest
level achieved in any of the four fields evaluated.
For
more information about the CST program, visit:
http://www.turismo-sostenible.co.cr
For
Hotel Villas Gaia, the main purpose of participating
in the CST program is to able to convert the sustainable
concept into something real, practical and necessary.
To implement this program we formed a project team
(ProVerde Gaia) and invited an expert (Margherita
Botazzi, biologist / consultant Armonia Natural)
to train us to be able to make our own Manuel of
Practical Guidelines for our daily work at Hotel
Villas Gaia
The
experience of ´transforming´ our Hotel Villas Gaia
into a sustainable hotel is motivating. We promote
an active participation in this process with our
guests.
All
ideas and comments are highly welcomed. We appreciate
your support!
It
is a pleasure to share our effort with you!
Team
ProVerde Gaia May
2008
(Giovanni,
Edgar, Leticia, Iliana, Anna, Andrea)
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