SST president Susan Santos De Cardenas with executives of the Chroma Hospitality Group
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Global contest launches search for green tourism stories

The Society for Sustainable Tourism, in collaboration with Green Destinations Southeast Asia and Chroma Hospitality Group, recently launched the Good Travel Stories Competition for 2025, a significant initiative that recognizes impactful sustainability practices in the travel and tourism industry.

Media launch of the Good Travel Stories Competition

Media launch of the Good Travel Stories Competition

The launch marks the beginning of a regional campaign to amplify inspiring, measurable, and replicable stories from tourism businesses, small and medium enterprises, and community-based initiatives around Southeast Asia.

From micro resorts to hospitality brands, travel startups to tour operators, establishments and entities are enjoined to submit a short video or photo story under the categories of climate action, nature conservation, or people and culture.

Open to all tourism-related businesses and destinations, the competition invites entries in video or image-based storytelling formats, highlighting impactful initiatives aligned with environmental stewardship, community development, protection of culture and heritage, and business ethics.

Entries should reflect authenticity, innovation, and positive impact to the industry and the community.

“The Competition empowers businesses to begin or strengthen their sustainability journey. With expert coaching, ESG integration, global certification pathways, and international visibility, it is more than a contest—it’s a movement,” says SST President and CEO Susan Santos de Cardenas.

She added that the initiative recognizes sustainability leadership among businesses, especially the SMEs, promotes local impact stories on a global stage, and equips tourism professionals with mentoring, tools, and certification opportunities.

SST president Susan Santos De Cardenas with executives of the Chroma Hospitality Group
SST president Susan Santos De Cardenas with executives of the Chroma Hospitality Group

“Sustainability is no longer a niche, but the future of tourism. Through this competition, we want to ignite a wave of action, innovation, and recognition for those already doing the work and those just beginning,” shares the recognized global mentor and strategist in sustainable tourism.

This green platform recognizes inspiring initiatives by tourism enterprises whose practices reflect the principles of responsible travel, climate action, and the triple bottom line: people, planet, profit.

SST is a regional leader in sustainability advocacy, policy alignment, and capacity building, and serves as the Southeast Asia Partner of Green Destinations. Since 2010, it has been helping empower governments, tourism boards, private sector stakeholders, and community enterprises in the region through training, coaching, and certification guidance aligned with global standards.

The Good Travel Stories Competition is also a rallying call to local governments, tourism organizations, and destination managers to support the journey of stakeholders towards sustainable transformation.

Winning stories will receive international exposure through Green Destinations’ Global Network & Conference to be held in Montpellier, France in September 2025, and will serve as replicable models that can inspire positive change across the industry.

Held at the Crimson Hotel in Alabang, Muntinlupa City, the launch was attended by executives of leading hospitality chains and brands in the Philippines such as the Chroma Hospitality Group, Megaworld Hotels and Resorts, and Discovery Hospitality Corp., which are currently implementing environmental sustainability programs.

For more information, visit www.sstdi.org, Society For Sustainable Tourism on Facebook, and sustain_abilityguru on Instagram.

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Written by Melo Villareal

Melo Villareal is the Online Publisher of Outoftownblog.com. He is an Accountant by profession who left the corporate world at the age of 23 to explore his beautiful country and the rest of the world. Today, Melo works as a part-time Social Media Manager for local and international clients. His full-time work focuses on discovering interesting culture, explore different cuisines and take memorable photos from local and international destinations he's visiting.

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