Growing interest in ecotourism’s role in sustainable development and concerns regarding the adverse effects of ecotourism mismanagement has led to the first World Ecotourism Summit, held in Quebec, Canada in 2002. It was jointly organized by UNWTO and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to lay the groundwork for Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC), introduced in 2008. The GSTC is the first international criteria for sustainable tourism practices which are based on the four main goals of ecotourism: effective sustainability planning, maximizing social and economic benefits for local communities, minimum negative impact on cultural heritage and on the environment. The criteria are not meant solely for ecotourism but also to guide the tourism industry in general toward more sustainable practices.

In order to enforce the criteria, the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, a global membership body sponsored partly by UNWTO, started developing an accreditation programme to certify ecotourism businesses that comply with universal standards. Another and more detailed accreditation criteria were published in 2013 that uses measurable indicators to distinguish legitimate ecotourism businesses from greenwashed enterprises. These measurable indicators include electricity and energy consumption per serviced area, freshwater usage and production per guest per night, etc.