Sustainable Top 100 Destination
PRESS INFORMATION
-FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE-
4 March 2020 - Palais am Funkturm, ITB Berlin
ALBERTA SOUTHWEST CROWN OF THE CONTINENT
WINS 3rd PLACE IN ‘‘BEST OF THE AMERICAS’’ CATEGORY AT THE
SUSTAINABLE TOP 100 DESTINATION AWARDS
Alberta SouthWest is very proud to have been chosen from the list of Top 100 destinations to be one of the Top 3 Finalists in ‘’Best of the Americas’’ category. The winners are :
First place: Vail Colorado
Second place: Guyana
Third place: Alberta SouthWest Crown of the Continent, Canada
https://greendestinations.org/2020-top-100-awards-itb-berlin/#1583158799195-c57b4aea-5e52
Alberta SouthWest had previously been named as a Global Top 100 Sustainable Destination in October 2019.
From those 100 destinations, 50 sustainable tourism stories were chosen. www.sustainable top 100.org.
Winners and finalists were then selected by a panel of experts representing 12 international organizations.
AlbertaSW has made its place among global destinations that strive to be more sustainable for the benefit of travellers and local communities, and to preserve, enhance and celebrate our iconic character of place.
ITB Berlin annually hosts the globally prestigious Awards Ceremony for Sustainable Destinations. The conference features 10,000 exhibitors and attracts over 113,000 visitors from 180 countries. Due to COVID-19 measures, the 2020 conference was cancelled at the last minute. The Awards were announced via e-mail and on-line notifications.
About Alberta SouthWest Crown of the Continent
Alberta SouthWest is a partnership of 15 communities located within the northeast corner of the “Crown of the Continent,” which is a larger transboundary region encompassing the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, and the surrounding areas of Alberta, British Columbia and Montana. Some key historic milestones include:
1932: Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park becomes world’s first international peace park and has been the model for over 150 peace parks world-wide.
1979: Waterton Biosphere Reserve (WBR) designated by UNESCO; it is one of only 18 biosphere reserves in Canada.
1981: Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
1993: The first commercial wind farm was built in Alberta SouthWest, making the region the birthplace of the wind industry in Canada.
1995: Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
2017: Castle Provincial Park and Castle Wildlife Provincial Park designated by Alberta Provincial Government.
2017: Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park declared a Provisional International Dark Sky Park by the International Dark-Sky Association, the first such designation that spans an international boundary.
2020: multi-partner Peaks to Prairies Electric Vehicle Charging Station Network completed and launched.
Bev Thornton, Executive Director of AlbertaSW extends a thank you to the staff of Green Destinations for their many hours of time to support the research and writing of the submission, and to the unfailing encouragement of the Travel Alberta team. Thornton observes, ‘’This global recognition is a reflection of international, provincial and municipal level commitment to grow prosperous communities that celebrate the important connection to our landscapes, history and culture’’.
About the Green Destinations Foundation
Green Destinations has developed an assessment and reporting system to assess current tourism policy, management and sustainability performance on relevant sustainability themes. The Green Destinations Assessment and Certification Program is a collaborative initiative of Green Destinations, the European Centre for Eco and Agro Tourism (ECEAT) and the Coastal & Marine Union (EUCC). The system consists of the Green Destinations Standard, which is a collection of criteria to assess sustainable destination management and policy and the Green Destinations Database which is a collection of sustainability and quality performance indicators fed by a variety of third-party data sources.