Geneva Tourism & Conventions Foundation
Geneva Tourism & Conventions Foundation: strategy for sustainable tourism
The Geneva Tourism & Conventions Foundation has been committed to sustainability for several years. In line with the sustainable development objectives adopted by the UN, in 2020 it approved a new strategy for the development of sustainable urban tourism in order to respond to current social, environmental and economic issues.
This strategy is based on 5 pillars
- Accelerating the transition to a circular economy.
- Accelerating the transition to a post-carbon economy.
- Promoting local initiatives.
- Fostering a social and collective impact on the destination.
- Strengthening collaboration between tourism stakeholders.
The Geneva Tourism & Convention Foundation (GT&CF) is continuing to implement the strategy objectives for sustainable tourism that were defined in June 2021.
The actions as well as the results obtained in 2022 are presented through five strategic pillars.
Pillar 1
Objective
Reduce waste in the tourism sector by 30% by 2025 by applying the principles of circular economy (5Rs).
Action
Organisation of a free training course in collaboration with Ecolive to raise awareness and set up a monitoring system for waste reduction in businesses.
Results 2022
Sixteen participants in the initial training course, 8 participants in the first follow-up session and only 3 in the second and final follow-up session.
Many people withdrew from the course and there was little follow-up in the monitoring, which meant we were not able to analyse the results.
Pillar 2
Objective
60% reduction in GHGs by 2030 compared to 1990.
Action
Organisation of a free training course in collaboration with Ecolive to raise awareness and set up a monitoring system to reduce energy consumption.
Result
Postponed to 2023
Pillar 3
ObjectiveEncourage, promote and support local events, products, crafts and know-how.
Actions
- Creation of a new “Sustainable Tourism” section on our website presenting the strategy as well as that of the City and Canton of Geneva. Highlighting local sustainable initiatives: low carbon impact activities, local ambassador restaurants, GRTA label, etc.
- Creation of a “sustainable choice” label for hotels and accommodation with independent certification or those that have adhered to the Swisstainable sustainability programme.
-
21 hotels listed by the end of 2022.
Regular promotion of Geneva events and local initiatives on our social networks. Twelve such communications were made in 2022 on the GT&CF social networks (posts and stories) with an overall reach of 79,800.
Pillar 4
Objective
Achieve 85% tourist satisfaction.
Action
Set up a satisfaction survey among tourists during the summer season.
Result
Postponed to 2023
Pillar 5
Objective Increase by 50% the number of actors with a “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR) policy and/or official certification.Action
Promotion of the Swisstainable programme and the OK:GO initiative during a webinar with the participation of both programmes.
Results 2022
- 20 destination stakeholders participated in the webinar “How to join Swisstainable & OK:GO” organised by FGT&C in September 2022.
- As of 31 December 2022*: 61 Geneva tourism partners were registered in the programme.
*Source: Swisstainable 2022 report by the Swiss Tourism Federation.
Geneva is taking action for sustainable tourism
As a member of the Global Destination Sustainability Index, the Geneva Tourism & Conventions Foundation has been committed to sustainability for several years. In line with the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations, in 2020 it approved a new strategy for the development of sustainable urban tourism in order to respond to current social, environmental and economic challenges.
GDS-Index
Geneva Tourism has been a member of the Global Destination Sustainability Movement (GDS-M) since 2016. The GDS Movement is a collaborative project between the CEM, ICCA, IMEX and MCI that aims to help destinations, event organisers and suppliers promote the adoption of sustainable practices in their city and in the global tourism industry.
The GDS-Index was developed in 2016 and assesses destinations through their environmental, social, supplier and destination management performance. This assessment ranks destinations according to their sustainability performance. The index enables best practices to be collected and provides a platform for exchanges between destinations.
In 2022, Geneva had a GDS-Index benchmark score of 69.7%, compared with the world average of 61.56%.
In 2023, Geneva is the second Swiss city in the GDS-Index ranking, after Zurich, with a score of 73.3% - up 5.11% on 2022.
Performance results :
- Environmental: 83.3% (5.25% Increase)
- Social: 76.3% (3.33% Decrease )
- Supplier 73% (17.13% Increase)
- DMO 62.2% (2.74% Increase )
Geneva partner of MyClimate “Cause We Care”
MyClimate “Cause We Care” is an initiative for climate protection and sustainable tourism in Switzerland. It enables visitors to our destination to contribute to climate protection by offsetting the CO2 emissions generated during their visit. Thus, by purchasing a Geneva City Pass, a Choco Pass or one of our public tours, 1 CHF is automatically donated to “Cause We Care”.
In order to maximise its effect, the Geneva Tourism & Conventions Foundation doubles the contributions and donates an additional CHF 1.
Thanks to this fund, the FGT&C supports a project for the ecological management of waste in Kenya, a local environmental protection association and is involved in its own climate protection actions.
The fund created between 15 March and 15 November 2022 by these offsets corresponds to CHF 8038. This was reinvested in support of the Cause We Care project "Ecological waste management, creating jobs in Kenya," through a donation to the Association pour la Sauvegarde du Léman and in the implementation of the GT&C Foundation’s sustainability actions.
Accessibility with OK:GO
OK:GO promotes the provision of information on the accessibility of tourist facilities throughout Switzerland. The information should be up-to-date, uniform and easy to find for everyone.
Canton and City of Geneva
The State Council declared a climate emergency in 2019 and adopted the new revision of the Cantonal Climate Plan in June 2021.
Sustainability in Geneva
At a time when nature conservation is such a major issue, Geneva has committed to the development of sustainable tourism.