The members of the working group responsible for the incorporation of the city of Valencia into the GDS Index meet with Rebecca Johnson to deepen their knowledge of their indicators and point out guidelines for the preparation of the report that will be presented as an assessment of the city.

On February 16, the online meeting of the Chair of Nova Transició Verda en Turisme of the University of Valencia took place with the team responsible for the development of the Destination Sustainable Index (GDS Index) by the Visit València Foundation and with the Senior Changemaker Rebecca Johnson (Global Destination Sustainability Movement).

Visit Valencia  -DMO of the Ciudad de Valencia destination- in collaboration with Global Omnium prepared the first study on the carbon footprint of tourist activity in an urban tourist destination such as the city of Valencia. In this line of progress towards a more sustainable destination, the Foundation has joined the Global Destination Sustainability Movement. The preparation of the Destination Sustainability Index constitutes a key development in the process of leading the advance towards a sustainable destination in the city of Valencia.

The collaboration with the Chair of the New Green Transition in Tourism of the University of Valencia is part of this process of development and analysis of valid indicators in this continuous process towards tourism sustainability.

At this meeting, Rebecca Johnson pointed out the key aspects to achieve the incorporation of the city of Valencia to the GDS Index, thus becoming a tourist destination with sustainable certification. Likewise, he stressed the importance of the Foundation, in collaboration with institutions such as the UV Green Transition Chair, who leads the implementation of a process that has to progressively involve all the stakeholders of the tourist destination.

As the GDS Movement well expresses, it is a movement that “helps destinations to co-create their tourism and events strategy, benchmarking and improving their sustainability performance, building capacity to transform the value chain and catalyze regeneration ”.

It is time to get going and work for a sustainable city and tourist destination that is committed to regenerative growth.