Director of Tourism Charles Lindo (left) and co-owner of Scubaqua's Dive Center Marieke van de Wetering celebrating at an event.
ST. EUSTATIUS--Scubaqua Dive Center has achieved a Good Travel Seal certification – a programme developed by Green Travel Destinations that is being offered to businesses in St. Eustatius.
The certification process helps businesses to be better prepared and gain customers' trust post-pandemic. Scubaqua Dive Center is the first business on the island to achieve the certification scoring an impressive 93 per cent. This makes the business a 2-Star Certified establishment. Being 2-star indicates that both online and onsite audits of Scubaqua’s processes were assessed, and the business has sufficiently adopted the conventions of sustainability identified by the qualifying body. Director of Tourism Charles Lindo said he is proud of the achievement and congratulated Scubaqua on their commitment to sustainability, eco-tourism and care for the environment.
Scubaqua also received the Virus Aware Seal, indicating that, amongst other things, the business adheres to important measures and protocols set out by the government and other authorities with regard to the prevention of virus transmissions, and is committed to recovery strategies for COVID-19 or other virus outbreaks.
These two ecolabels are centred around sustainability, health and safety, and will help the island to attract environmentally-conscious travellers to Statia.
Certified businesses will be featured in the Good Travel Guide. “We anticipate that within a short time, other businesses would complete the certification process,” Shanettie Carty said. “As mentioned before, the certification process is a two-year qualifying procedure, and we strongly encourage the businesses on Statia that have registered to complete it.”
With regard to the pandemics' negative effect on many businesses, Carty said that “in an effort to reclaim our place in the international market, we need to be proactive and have new practices in place.”
For information on the certification, entrepreneurs or businesses can contact Statia Tourism Office on +599-318-2433/+599-318-2107.
