The Global Destination Sustainability Movement (GDSM) brings together the sustainability pioneers of the business and leisure tourism world, and works with destinations to co-create their tourism and events strategies, benchmark and improve their sustainability performance, and transforms value chains in order to catalyse regeneration. If you work in the destination management space, and have an interest in sustainability and regeneration, the GDSM is for you.
The GDS-Index is a benchmark that ranks global destinations based on their sustainability performance in the tourism and events industry. The GDS-Movement is the organisation under which all our services are grouped, including the GDS-Index.
You can get involved in the GDS-Movement by participating in the GDS-Index or the GDS-Academy, and by employing our consulting services.
Click here to subscribe to the GDS-Movement Newsletter.
We usually post job opening on our LinkedIn profile and our blog. If you are interested in working with us, but we do not currently have a vacancy, don’t hesitate to send us your CV.
Key benefits of joining the leading sustainable destination benchmarking and performance improvement program include:
Unlike other standards and rankings, the GDS-Index was specifically created – originally – for the events and meetings industry and is the only programme of its type in the world. Since 2020 we have integrated leisure tourism into the criteria, making it relevant for all leisure and business tourism destinations.
The criteria are annually reviewed and a draft is developed by the GDS-Movement team following consultation and input from key destinations. These draft criteria undergo an in-depth revision from the GDS-Index Technical Advisory Committee, which is composed of destination sustainability experts from NGOs, DMOs and cities around the world.
You can access our full methodology at the bottom of the GDS-Index page.
Each year, when the GDS-Index results are announced, we celebrate the efforts of three destinations at the annual ICCA Congress with three awards:
Yes. In 2020, due to COVID-19, the benchmarking results were not made public, and instead served DMOs as a year for internal reflection, and offered a unique opportunity for new destinations to test the waters before the public 2021 benchmark.
The GDS-Index serves destinations on the national, regional, and local level. This means that it works with national and regional tourism bureauxs, local convention bureaux, and local councils. In the short, we work with any destination management organisation, including city councils. Talk to us today!
If you are interested in getting your destination to join, please contact us. If you have big questions that have to be cleared before you can make the decision to join, we will be happy to arrange a call with you.
In brief, the benchmarking process works as follows:
In 2023 the GDS-Index Portal (OMNI) will be open from 3 April until 2 June.
You are free to publicly share your score and anything related to your GDS-Index performance. For example, through the analytic tools in Omni, you can create graphs to share with your stakeholders.
You can find all the tutorial video on our YouTube channel, on our Omni playlist. There is also an FAQ section in Omni itself.
Yes, you can. How you can access it will vary, as different tools were used for the benchmark over the course of the past years. From 2020 onwards you can download the results directly from Omni. For previous years, please contact us and we will forward you your results.
It usually takes about 25 – 40 hours the first time and 15 – 20 hours the second. The first year, it normally takes 1 – 2 months to get the data. The main reason it can take over a month to collect all data, is due to the data from the local council and suppliers.
Top Tip: start collecting as early as possible, so that you can account for time-lags and potential holidays of the local council and suppliers (e.g. hotels and PCOs).
Yes, you can submit documents in languages other than English, as long as they are in a text-readable PDF format and you and indicate the parts/pages relevant for the answer.
Yes, you can create sub-users and delegate criteria to them. This is particularly useful when looking for data from outside of your organisation , as you can create sub-users for those working e.g.in your local council.
Our consulting service can be broken down into 6 categories:
For more info, visit our Consulting page.
The main destination we’ve been working with so far are IMEX, ICCA, Failte Ireland, Tourisme Montreal, Goteborg and Wonderful Copenhagen. Event organisers, national tourism organisations, local councils, and associations, are all past clients of ours. If you fall into any of those organisation categories and require our expertise in driving sustainability and regenerative practices in destinations, reach out to us today!
The GDS-Forum is the global event that convenes and unites destination management professionals to catalyse innovation for regeneration.
If you want to participate or join as sponsor or speaker, please contact us.
This unique event is currently in the planning and is being co-designed for, and by destinations, partners, changemakers and innovators in the business tourism and destination world.
The GDS-Academy provides leading-edge training for event and tourism professionals to turn concepts into action, and then into impact. Click here to find out more.
Please contact us if you are interested in participating to the GDS-Academy.
You can download our media kit with our mission and vision, logo, links and more here.
You can access this comprehensive guide to see how our logo should be used.
Please reach out to our marketing manager, Jess Henson, if you would like to submit an article to the GDSM Blog.
If you would like to share one of our articles on your website, please contact us.
Want more info? Contact us
