The new Sustainable Destinations Alliance for the Americas (SDAA) launched on Thursday at an event in Barbados and is the largest-scale effort to date through which public and private entities have united to focus on destination sustainability in the Americas.
The SDAA will offer seven destinations in the Caribbean and Latin America significant support with their sustainability efforts. Each participating destination will begin with an evaluation of destination management practices designed to recognize areas of strength, and to identify areas in which they have the greatest opportunity to improve.
Royal Caribbean is teaming up the Caribbean Tourism Organization, global NGO Sustainable Travel International and the United States Government through the United States Permanent Mission to the Organization of American States to form the organization.
Destinations will also have access to an online sustainable tourism course called Sustainable Tourism Professionals, designed to facilitate implementation of sustainability practices, and a destination sustainability monitoring framework called SMART, which will support the tracking of key performance metrics. Results and lessons learned will be disseminated regionally to leverage market advantage, and to foster greater understanding among destination decision-makers.
Royal Caribbean's Ocean Fund will provide financial resources along with the United States Permanent Mission to the Organization of American States to complete in-depth work in the first 7 destinations. Four destinations will be funded by the US Mission, and three will receive funding from Royal Caribbean.
Royal Caribbean Vice President of Safety and Environmental Stewardship, Rich Pruitt, commented on the news, "It’s critical that companies look at ways they can have a positive impact in the places where they do business. We want to see the uniquely beautiful destinations of the Caribbean and Latin American region thrive, and are committed to collaborating with the organizations that can work to move these destinations toward greater sustainability."
