ABSTRACT
International organisations and the tourism industry have introduced a number of initiatives to regulate claims regarding environmental performance of ecotourist establishments. Preliminary research carried out in several countries revealed widespread concern among industry stakeholders regarding the plethora of tourism bodies, the wide range of assessment and accreditation systems, and the casual use of ‘ecoterminology’ for marketing purposes. In addition, while there are broad design guidelines for tourist infrastructure, there has been little work done to relate them directly to environmental and economic performance indicators. The Collaborative Research Centre in Australia undertook the work of customising aGBC (‘Green BuildingChallenge 2000’) building assessment tool to fit the needs of the tourism industry. Without an appropriate tool, it is difficult to link design guidelines and industry standards, and to arrive at performance benchmarks for environmental strategies.
