Sri Lanka Tourism was honored with the Green Destination Award at ITB Berlin this year for its many years of efforts in the field of sustainable tourism. The country was honored for its efforts in implementing sustainable environmental practices in and around the Sigiriya rock fortress. This important historical fortress, dating from the fifth century, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site as early as 1982. The historic site, located on a rocky monolith in the center of the island and surrounded by tropical vegetation, is one of the country's most important tourist attractions.

After completing a comprehensive evaluation process, the jury decided to honor Sri Lanka Tourism's efforts for Sigiriya with the Green Destination Bronze Award. This award recognizes outstanding achievements in sustainable fields such as nature and monument protection, waste management, energy efficiency and climate adaptation and risk management. The prestigious award also recognizes the efforts of the South Asian country to further enhance the destination's attractiveness for tourists in the years to come. Not only visible criteria such as natural heritage are assessed and evaluated, but also political strategies and management plans, which must comply with the principles of sustainable development.

Participating organizations undergo a demanding and comprehensive qualification program: Destinations are required to implement a sustainability management system, with independent reviews of performance and progress, as well as recommendations for improvements, taking place every two to three years. After extensive preparation and reporting, 97 sustainability criteria and indicators are examined during an independent on-site audit.

“This award is an important milestone for tourism in Sri Lanka, especially at a time when sustainable tourism is becoming increasingly important to travelers around the world,” said Buddika Hewawasam, Chairman of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, at the award ceremony on March 4 at the ITB in Berlin. The award is an incentive for the country's tourism industry to adopt more sustainable practices and to further strengthen Sri Lanka as a leading sustainable destination of global excellence, emphasized Hewawasam in Berlin.

The Green Destinations Award & Certification Program encourages communities, counties, regions and protected areas to continuously and sustainably promote responsible destination management and encourage the tourism sector to adopt environmental practices. With the support of regional partners and representatives, more than 160 destinations in 60 countries have received awards and certifications to date. The Green Destinations certification has been recognized by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) since 2018.

The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority played a crucial role in recieving this award with their hard work and dedication ,  working continously to get this achievement  for almost two years , complying with the Global Sustainable Tourism Criterias , issued by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) .These criterias include 4 main levels as bronze level , silver level , gold level and platiinum level . ‚‘Even to achieve this target is a high task‘‘,said Mr. Upali Rathnayake , Deputy Director General , SLTDA , who was the main force of inspiration in leading his team to gain this opportunity.

In parallel with these efforts , there was a large list of  highly supportive stake holders such as the Central Cultural Fund , (CCF) , Divisional Secretatriat , Aracheological department , Provincial Council Dambulla , Forest Department ,to make this happen.SLTDA was the main coordinator for this project , along with a dedicated and a motivated team led by  Mr. Upali Rathnayake (Deputy Director General , SLTDA) , Mr. Deepan Sinharasan , Ms. Dinushka Peiris , Ms. Sandhapaba Kathriarachchi , and Mr. Muditha Abeysinghe .  Mr. Chinthana Dumiduhewa did a massive contribution as the country coordinator for Green Destinations, while the project was funded by UNDP and ADB . The UNDP spent for studies and side development including guide training while ADB supported for the destination management plan and ready for infrastructure development. Slidaridad helped for awareness, cleaning and self-assessment portal for Sustainable certification.

In general , this was the ultimate result of team work done in colloboration of SLTDA together SLTPB and other key stakeholders , Industry representatives and the Tourism community  to highlight Sri Lanka in the global map as a sustainable tourism destination, futher to its continous line of international endorsements.

Regarding the process of this  popular concept  , There are around 350  countries certfied as sustainable tourism destinations. The regulatory body to overlook the sustainability and certify all these countries , is the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) .The UNWTO is considered as a sister organization in contributing with this procedure. Sustainable Tourism is considered as a market trend , and also a subject which os carried out by other destinations. The criteria includes key steps as main attraction preparation , stakeholder preparation , decording and monitoring capability . In order to achieve its target each country has to fulfill these requirements issued by the GSTC. Sigiriya was actually  chosen as a much preffered tourism attraction, considering its vast cultural vicinity of 3 km radius, and the  the ability to draw a large number of both local and international tourists on a daily basis. It also runs as a border to minneriya national park which has high tourism value.

The SLTDA mainly focused on measuring and monitoring   garbage collected on a daily basis , mainly focused on the waste water usage , measuring the guests satisfaction level , the amount of avenues open for community benefit , and what measures were taken to protect flora and fauna of the area. After having proved all these areas , a shadow audit was  done by the GSTC to qualify the destnation as a sustainable destination. There were seperate evalouation teams to evaluate this process. Having gone through this complicated process Sri Lanka was finaly chosen as a sustainable tourism destination. This is another milestone for  Sri Lanka whereas it is named as a sustainable tourism destination for the first time in Sri Lankas  Tourism history.

As per the tourism tagline , we can also include this achievement  to encourage more tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka. Thus we have reached the sustainability level  on a mild scale . Sri Lanka also joined  a sustainable toursim alliance , which another  impiortant achievement . In briging the destination to such a status, Facilities ,services ,  activities , and also the tourism economy also play a key role . With all these areas fulfilled, and the award which it has won,  Sri Lanka has proven it’s capability of attracting tourists through it’s diversity , cultural and religous ties, and many more tourist attractions which would mesmerize any tourist who visits this country.