Green Tourism Certified

Green Tourism is proud to announce the launch of Green Tourism Certified, officially unveiled at ITB Berlin in March 2026.

What is Green Tourism Certified?

Green Tourism Certified is a new certification standard designed to help travel and tourism businesses demonstrate their sustainability to European consumers, wherever they are travelling in the world.

It provides independent, third-party verification of sustainability performance and helps businesses align with evolving European requirements on environmental claims, including the new EU Claims Directive.

About the EU Claims Directive

The directive is designed to prevent misleading “green” claims, ensuring that statements about a company’s sustainability credentials are accurate, evidence-based and verifiable. This means that any claims made to European consumers must be substantiated and – if you want to appear in “green” filters on major online booking platforms – independently verified.

From September 2026, businesses wishing to appear in green or sustainability filters on booking platforms for European consumers, including Booking.com, Google and Expedia, will need this level of independently verified certification.

Verified & Accredited

Green Tourism Certified has been developed using 30 years of Green Tourism expertise, under the guidance of Control Union, an internationally recognised certification and inspection body. The system has been designed to ensure that your sustainability claims are robust, credible, and aligned with evolving EU legislation.

Green Tourism Certified is:

UKAS -recognised: submitted for formal accreditation to ensure credibility
Aligned with ISO 17965: meeting international standards for sustainability
Independently audited by Control Union: a globally recognised certification body
In line with the EU Claims Directive: ensuring environmental claims are accurate, evidence-based, and verifiable
Rigorous and transparent: a robust process that gives confidence to regulators, partners and customers

Green Tourism Certified ensures your sustainability performance is formally validated, giving you confidence that your environmental claims are fully compliant and credible to both regulators and consumers.

Why Consider Certification?

Maintain visibility with European travellers: appearing in OTA “green” filters requires independently verified claims
Demonstrate leadership and credibility: third-party validation strengthens trust with guests, partners, and stakeholders
Future-proof your sustainability strategy: the system is designed to keep you current with EU Green Claims and other pending regulations
Leverage 30 years of expertise: Green Tourism has supported thousands of tourism businesses in proving and improving sustainability

Green Tourism Certified

Frequently Asked Questions

The EU’s Green Claims Directive will apply to businesses promoting environmental or sustainability credentials to European consumers regardless of where the business is based or where customers are travelling – including the UK. Green Tourism Certified ensures your sustainability claims are independently verified and credible for all European visitors.

Green Tourism Certified is a new product designed by Green Tourism to allow your business to meet EU legislation. There will be an additional charge payable to Control Union for the independent third party audits which are yet to be announced. Your existing Green Tourism membership provides you access to the full support service to allow you to prepare for the Green Tourism Certified audit.

The online process to prepare for your Green Tourism Certified audit is streamlined, intuitive and you will be working with the supportive team at Green Tourism, so there is no time lost when you commit. The more thorough you are in collating the evidence and uploading to the Green Tourism portal, the less time it will take for you to complete the process. Once you are fully ready and have submitted online, you will be contacted by Control Union to book a mutually acceptable date for their independent audit. If there are no critical or major non-compliances to address, a certification decision will be made within ten days of this audit date.

It is not mandatory to have independent certification, however, from September 2026, any business wishing to appear in green or sustainability filters on online booking platforms – such as Booking.com, Google and Expedia – must hold independently verified certification.

Green Tourism Certified has been developed using 30 years of Green Tourism expertise, in partnership with Control Union, a globally recognised certification and inspection body, who will carry out the independent audits, ensuring global coverage of professional, consistent and rigorous assessments.

Green Tourism Certified gives your business independently verified, credible sustainability credentials. This helps you to appear in green filters on major booking platforms for EU travellers, and future-proof your environmental claims as expectations and regulations evolve.

Our technical account management team will maintain their current client portfolio – so yes, you will keep your existing relationships, ensuring that knowledge and expertise is retained.

The Green Tourism Certified requirements are based on our current criteria, so everything you have done to achieve a Gold Award will be considered as part of your Green Tourism Certified audit. There may be some additional information you have to provide.

The Green Tourism Certified requirements are based on our current criteria and so everything you have done and any evidence you have uploaded to the portal will be considered as part of your Green Tourism Certified audit. There may be some additional information you have to provide.

We offer a full range of support packages to help you achieve certification within your preferred timeline, including a gap analysis, team training, collating and uploading evidence, and a pre-audit assessment to ensure you are ready for certification. Once you have submitted for your certification audit, Green Tourism can assist you during the audit process to achieve certification as timely as possible, including providing support and advice to correct any non-compliance or requirements for additional evidence.

Yes, we are developing a full range of online training programmes for businesses and their staff on the new certification. We are partnering with Surrey University to ensure our training is aligned with current trends and best practise and, where appropriate, accredited.