If you’re doing your best to become a more responsible tourist, choosing a location based on its sustainability efforts is a pretty good place to start.
That’s where the Global Destination Sustainability (GDS) Index comes in. The platform assesses the sustainability of destinations the world over against four criteria: destination management, supplier performance, social progress and environmental performance.
The 40 cities that score best overall are considered ‘sustainability leaders’ – and now we know where they are!
In first place, it was Helsinki, which the report describes as ‘a pioneer in the sustainability of tourism and events and a solver of future challenges’. The Finnish capital gets 51 percent of its electricity from renewable sources and a whopping 88 percent of hotel rooms are sustainability certified. It also scores well on social inclusion, personal safety and corruption perception – you can read more about its credentials here.
Gothenburg came in second place with an overall score of 90.83 percent, and Copenhagen came in third with 88.19 percent. A pretty good show for the Nordics, but Europe did very well overall, taking the top six spots, eight of the top 10 and 17 of the top 20!
These are the top 20 most sustainable destinations in the world
- Helsinki, Finland
- Gothenburg, Sweden
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Bergen, Norway
- Arthus, Denmark
- Bordeaux, France
- Singapore
- Oslo, Norway
- Belfast, UK
- Sydney, Australia
- Aalborg, Denmark
- Glasgow, United Kingdom
- Zurich, Switzerland
- Bilbao, Spain
- Lyon, France
- Goyang, South Korea
- Reykjavik, Iceland
- Middelfart, Denmark
- Kerry, Ireland
- Paris, France
We recently covered the ranking of the best (and worst) countries in the world for nature conservation, and you can read our tips on being a more sustainable tourist here.
Did you see that this European country could be getting a brand-new ‘supercity’?
Plus: It will soon become much easier to visit this remote country.
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