Greece Among World’s First Green Holiday Destinations Top 100

Alonissos Island. Photo: © Aetherial Images / Shutterstock

The Greek destinations of Alonissos, Athos area, Ierapetra, Naxos and Samothrace have been named in the inaugural Sustainable Destinations Global Top 100, a joint initiative of Green Destinations and Totem Tourism.

The Sustainable Destinations Global Top 100 celebrates the management efforts of the world’s most sustainable tourist destinations.

The five Greek destinations join a host of well-known global destinations in the Top 100 list, including Vancouver (Canada), Barcelona and La Palma-The Canaries (Spain), New Forest National Park (UK), the Paphos region (Cyprus) and Wild Coast (Africa).

Samothrace island, waterfalls.

The list is the result of open calls in the social media, followed by a selection process involving 30 international experts.

The Sustainable Destinations Global Top 100 present ratings of overall destination sustainability according to the only available global assessment tool for this purpose: the Global Sustainable Tourism Review, GSTR.

In addition to the GSTR rating, the website presents the scores given by Green Destinations Selection Panel members to destinations’ performance on six key criteria: Nature, Environment, Culture & Tradition, Social well-being, Green Economy and certified Green Tourism Policy. The latter criterion, corresponding to certification using the GSTC destination criteria, is given the highest weight of all criteria. The Top 100 includes all certified destinations of QualityCoast, Biosphere, and EarthCheck.

Click here to see the Sustainable Destinations Global Top 100.

Portara, Naxos

Mount Athos Area

Ierapetra, Crete. Photo © Facebook – ΟΙ ΟΜΟΡΦΙΕΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΑΣ ΜΑ