The Global Sustainable Tourism Alliance (GSTA) is a partnership of leading organizations in the sustainable tourism field, supported financially by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Through this alliance, leading tourism development institutions, conservation organizations, tourism practitioners, private sector tourism industry leaders, and USAID design and implement sustainable tourism practices in a variety of destinations around the world. All tourism development activities undertaken by the GSTA adhere to the following principles:
Make optimal use of environmental resources, conserve biodiversity, and protect natural heritage;
Respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities including indigenous values and traditions;
Provide fairly distributed socio-economic benefits to local stakeholders; and
Encourage investment in sustainable tourism products, services, and related infrastructure.
The GSTA is currently working in Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, and Mali — and will be adding more countries throughout the life of the project.
