- Sustainable Tourism Partnership Programme

Welcome to the Sustainable Tourism Partnership Programme

The Sustainable Tourism Partnership Programme (STPP) is an affiliate member of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). The STPP is a non-profit company established in 2012 to facilitate the mass scale implementation of Sustainable Tourism Practices in Smaller Accommodation Establishments (SAEs), Smaller Tourism and Hospitality Businesses and Communities across South Africa. Since its inception, the STPP is viewed as a thought leader in Sustainable Tourism Implementation. The programme has been developed in alignment to, amongst others, the National Tourism Sector Strategy and the National Minimum Standard for Responsible Tourism NMSRT (SANS 1162:2011). As such the programme incorporates environmental, cultural, heritage and social criteria, economic best practice, community resilience, universal accessibility and service excellence.

The STPPs approach is to drive mass scale change across the industry by working with local, regional, provincial and national public and private stakeholders to form strong collaborative partnerships. The STPPs programmes are aimed at delivering mind-set changes, training, education, upskilling, market data and specialized projects and programmes that provide solutions that assist the smaller tourism sector to overcome barriers to sustainable growth and development. The STPP works through extensive networks and partnerships to influence change from the top down and the bottom up. The programme offers a variety of interventions towards achieving its vision of becoming the most impactful mass sustainable tourism implementation programme, including (but not limited to):

Sustainable Tourism Implementation Workshops
Resource Efficiency Programme
Staff Green Training
Waste Management through Tourism Programme
Local Sourcing through Tourism Programme
Products for Sustainable Tourism;
Editors of Sustainable & Responsible Tourism Handbooks vol’s 1,2 & 3
Hosts and organizers of Responsible Tourism Dialogue – Sustainability Week 2012 – 2015;
Magaliesburg Development Initiative, N12 Treasure Route and Karoo Development Forum Sustainable Tourism Implementation Partners;
Ongoing surveys , data collection and market analysis;
STPP Directors are represented on more than 30 tourism forums and committees – locally and internationally;

There are many aspects to being a sustainable business, community, industry and economy. Sustainability is still a relatively complex concept for most stakeholders, and pro-active, mass scale implementation efforts are limited. The STPP provides an implementation framework which translates the strategic objectives of, among others, the NTSS and the NDP 2030 simple, measurable steps – how to start and what to do to the tourism value network.