DRMumbai: Petra Archaeological Park has been selected by the Green Destinations Foundation as one of the Top 100 Sustainable Destinations for 2019 at ITB Berlin 2019 The event, the 2019 Sustainable Top 100 Destination Awards, not only highlights but also recognises innovation and best practices in tourism management of destinations and tour operators whose hard work and perseverance has helped lead the way towards quality, attractiveness and sustainability in tourism.
Her Excellency Majd Shweikeh, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, was in Berlin to receive the award. She said, “Petra is one of the Kingdom’s most important and most famous archaeological sites and this award underlines our ability as a sector not only to increase demand for our tourism product but to simultaneously maintain and protect our heritage in a sustainable way both for the antiquities and the local communities.” Her Excellency added, “Petra provides us with the framework to reflect everything we’ve learned onto every tourism attraction in the country and ensure that our heritage, hospitality and culture lives on for generations to come.”
The competition was organised by 12 leading sustainable tourism organisations and networks, and destinations were nominated upon submitting a comprehensive application that addresses 30 key criteria. Applications were then reviewed by an international jury comprising of 12 experts from USA, Germany, Thailand, Netherlands, Australia, Norway and the United Kingdom with the aim of identifying the best sustainability success stories and good practices.
From a total of 100 top-sustainable destinations from around the world, 44 sustainable tourism stories submitted their applications to this year’s award. Of these 44 stories, 10 award winners have been carefully selected by a jury represented by 12 international organisations.
This award provides destinations with the opportunity to showcase the global state-of-the-art green destination to the travel sector and the media at ITB Berlin 2019.
In addition to winning this award, the Petra Archaeological Park was also chosen as the number 2 finalist in the Best of Culture & Communities category for global leadership in protecting culture and tradition, involving local communities, and avoiding overtourism. Both of these selections will help elevate Jordan as a global leader in tourism sustainability and conservation.
Green Destinations’ awards are given to destinations that have effective measures in place to prevent tourism impacts on nature & landscape, culture & tradition, environment & climate and on host communities.
Petra Archaeological Park’s acknowledgement came as a result of USAID BEST Project support to the PDTRA in developing and submitting a successful nomination file in December 2018. The nomination content was developed in collaboration between PDTRA and the USAID BEST team and international tourism experts.
