Visit County Durham has been awarded a prestigious green accolade for its commitment to sustainability.  The Bronze Green Tourism Award recognises the businesses eco-friendly practices and dedication to protecting the climate and supporting the local community. 

The Green Tourism certification is judged by a panel of expert assessors, ensuring that travel and hospitality businesses reach the criteria required, showcasing a significant commitment to environmental operations and practices.  

The organisation provides advice and manageable actions for tourism and hospitality businesses to achieve sustainability certification. 

Visit County Durham’s application showed the ways we are working in line with Durham County Council’s priority to be Carbon Neutral by 2025 with an 80% reduction by 2030. 

It also highlighted the ways we work to promote green initiatives such as active travel options on public transport and visitor itineraries, as well as showing the work that has been done to ensure that visitor economy businesses are accessible to those with physical disabilities. 

Work has also been done to support local charities tackling issues like poverty, and we offer partners help and advice by sharing regenerative tourism information with both visitors and businesses, as well as completing the annual Global Destination Sustainability Movement global city index.  

Lucy Wearne, project and research manager at Visit County Durham said: “This highlights our team’s dedication to continual improvement and working hard towards protecting against climate change. We hope that our sustainable actions empower and inspire others throughout the destination to work towards a greener future.  As part of funding from the Destination Development Pilot there are still fully funded memberships available for tourism businesses. To claim a free year, businesses need to sign up by 30 June. They also get 50% off year 2 and 25% off year 3 if they choose to continue.