Green Scheme of Slovenian tourism

Green Scheme of Slovenian tourism

Within developed tourism services, green tourism is mandatory direction for future development, because only tourism that is based on the economic performance of tourism operations and is also accommodating and constructive towards the natural, cultural and social environments will continue to be competitive in the future.

The Slovenian Tourist Board is committed to make green and sustainable the watchwords that permeate its every activity in the future. Our mission in the field of green tourism is to inform stakeholders about the significance of climate change and its impacts on tourism, along with any changes in the market, and to encourage action to be taken towards adapting to climate change and mitigating it. The main strategic focuses of green tourism most certainly include the active focus of tourism on the green economy, providing information and encouragement for the tourism industry to develop green business models, encouragement for destinations to set up sustainable development models based on sustainability indicators, and raising the awareness of tourists, thus helping them to focus on a more sustainable lifestyle and a friendlier attitude towards their own environment. In order to enhance the implementation of green tourism, the Green Scheme of Slovenian Tourism Slovenia Green was developed.

In 2009, the Slovenian Tourist Board developed strategic focuses in the field of green tourism. In 2014, the public agency SPIRIT Slovenija, in cooperation with operators and experts in sustainable tourism, used strategic focuses to draft the “Green Scheme of Slovenian Tourism«, which is based on European (ETIS) and global (GSTC) criteria and recommends the use of the GSTR tool for measuring performance in the field of introducing green operations.

The Green Scheme is a system that combines all sustainable development efforts under the umbrella brand SLOVENIA GREEN, it enables comparisons with other green destinations around the world, and adds national character, which makes it possible to more easily position of green Slovenia on the global map. In 2015, we started to implement the scheme at the level of destinations and accomodations. As of August 2015, these tasks were assumed by the Slovenian Tourist Board, which once again works independently.

To date, the national scheme includes 22 destinations with the Slovenia Green Destination label (Ljubljana, Kamnik, Idrija, Rogla - Zreče, Radlje ob Dravi, Cerkno, Laško, Žalec, Celje, Velenje, Nova Gorica, Maribor, Brda, Kranjska Gora, Ptuj, Slovenj Gradec, Bela krajina, Kočevsko, Polhov Gradec, Vipava Valley, The Solčava Region and Podčetrtek) and 11 accommodation providers with the Slovenia Green Accommodation label (Thermana Park Hotel in Laško, Koren Camp Site in Kobarid, Terme Snovik Spa, the Urška Tourist Farm, Ortenia – Holiday Apartments in Nature, the Trnulja Estate, the Park Hotel in Ljubljana, the Celica Hostel, Pr' Gavedarjo Design Rooms, the Jožef Hotel in Idrija  and Hotel St. Daniel Štanjel).

To get more information on how to join the Green Scheme of Tourism, please contact:

Nataša Hočevar
Head of the Research, Development, Innovation, and EU Projects Department
phone no: 01 589 85 58
e-mail: natasa.hocevar(at)slovenia.info