The Global Destination Sustainability Movement (GDS-Movement) is a pioneering, international change agency that acts to catalyse socio-economic and environmental transformation in cities and regions. Our mission is to empower tourism and events professionals with the mindsets, skill sets, and toolsets to co-create more regenerative and resilient destinations to visit, meet, and live in.

If you work in destination management or events and have an interest in sustainability and regeneration, GDS-Movement is here to support you. 

The GDS-Index is the world’s most-trusted performance improvement programme to assess and accelerate the progress of a destination’s regenerative journey. It measures, benchmarks, and enhances the sustainability strategies, action plans, and initiatives of destination management organisations, municipal authorities, and their tourism supply chains, globally.

The GDS-Movement is a pioneering, international change agency committed to supporting regenerative destinations and events globally. The GDS-Movement incorporates a variety of services including the GDS-Index, GDS-Academy, GDS-Consulting, and more. 

You can get involved in the GDS-Movement by benchmarking your destination in the GDS-Index, learning in our Masterclasses, or enjoying bespoke support through our consulting support. 

Click here to subscribe to the GDS-Movement Newsletter.

Have a look at how to join the team. If you are interested in working with us, but we do not currently have a vacancy, please submit an unsolicited application. 

It is a balanced, living-systems approach to developing and managing a flourishing and equitable visitor economy. It aims to use tourism and events to transform environmental, social, and economic problems. It aims to restore and rejuvenate communities, their people, and place, rather than degrade or merely sustain conditions. It is community-centric, inspired by nature, inclusive and circular by design. Regenerative Destination Management forms the basis of all the contributions GDS-Movement makes to tourism and events.  

The key benefits of joining the leading sustainable destination benchmarking and performance improvement programme include: 

1. Benchmarking to drive better decision-making 
2. Gaining tailored, expert advice to improve your sustainability and business strategy 
3. Catalysinge collaboration and innovation within a destination 
4. Offering your clients a trusted, third-party endorsement 
5. Promoting your destination’s sustainability story 
6. Saving resources and time – we know what is necessary to become a more regenerative destination 

Unlike other standards and rankings, the GDS-Index was originally created specifically for the events and meetings industry, and is the only tool of its type in the world. Since 2020 we integrated leisure tourism into the criteria, making it relevant for all business and leisure tourism destinations. 

The criteria are reviewed and enhanced annually, and a draft is developed by the GDS-Movement team following consultation and input from key destinations. These draft criteria undergo an in-depth revision from the GDS-Index Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), which includes destination sustainability experts from NGOs, DMOs, and cities around the world. 

You can access our full methodology here

Each year, when the GDS-Index results are announced, we celebrate the efforts of  destinations at the annual GDS-Forum with these awards: 

1. The Leadership Award – the destination scoring the highest on the year’s GDS-Index, demonstrating its continual commitment, inspired vision, prompt action, and measurable impacts. 
2. The Innovation Award – for a destination using innovative solutions to drive sustainability performance.  
3. The Most Improved Destination Award – for the destination that has demonstrated the highest level of overall improvement from the previous year. This is independent of its ranking. 
4. The Impact Award – for a destination management organisation committed to legacy and impact through business events. It is a collaborative initiative developed by GDS-Movement and #MEET4IMPACT. 

These awards are collectively referred to as the Global Destination Sustainability Awards or GDS-Awards. Find out more here!

The GDS-Index serves destinations at the national, regional, and local (city) level. This means that it works with national and regional tourism bureaux, local convention bureaux, and local councils. In short, we work with any destination management organisation, including city councils. Talk to us today!

If you are interested in benchmarking your destination with GDS-Index, please contact us. If you have questions that have to be answered before your destination can commit to joining, we will be happy to arrange a call with you. 

1. Data Collection: You identify who to contact for data and delegate to them, with our support. 
2. Submit Data: Using our online data and analytics portal Omni, you upload your data alongside supporting documents. 
3. Benchmark: Our team evaluates the answers, making sure your contact understood them all correctly, and then releases your score. 
4. Results: The results usually go live during the annual GDS-Forum in the northern hemisphere autumn (fall). 
5. Assessment Report: Our team creates an in-depth analysis of your performance, and presents this to you alongside tailored recommendations for the next steps. 
6. Time for Action: To make your destination more sustainable, it is now over to you to implement our recommendations. If you are unsure of where to start, you may be interested in getting more support from us. 

In 2024 the GDS-Index Portal (Omni) will be open from 25 March – 26 May. You can also find the full timeline at the bottom of this page.

You are free to share your score and anything related to your GDS-Index performance. For example, through the analytic tools in Omni, you can create graphs to share with your stakeholders. If you are unsure of what stories to tell from your data, consider our dedicated, in-house Masterclass, or reach out to us for bespoke support through GDS-Consulting for Communications. 

You can find all the tutorial videos on our YouTube channel, on the Omni playlist. There is also an FAQ section in Omni. 

Yes, you can. How you can access it will vary, as different tools have been used for benchmarking in recent years. From 2020 onwards, you can download the results directly from OMNI. For years occurring prior to 2020, please contact us and we will send you your results. 

It usually takes about 25 – 40 hours initially, and 15 – 20 hours subsequently. This includes corrections to your submissions during the review process. The first time you submit a benchmarking application, it typically takes 1 – 2 months to gather the data. This is mainly due to the delays in accessing and retrieving data from the local council and suppliers.  

Top Tip: start gathering data as early as possible, so that you can account for time-lags in local council and supplier responses (e.g. hotels and PCOs, holidays).

Yes, you can submit documents in languages other than English, as long as they are in a text-searchable PDF format and you indicate the parts/pages relevant to the criterion you are answering. 

Yes, you can create sub-users and delegate criteria to them. This is particularly useful when looking for data from outside of your organisation, as you can create sub-users for those working, for example, in your local council. 

Have a look here

Our consulting service can be broken down into 6 categories:  

1. Strategy (development and improvement)  
2. Impact and Legacy (Measurement and reporting)  
3. Communication (Let the world know about your actions)  
4. Social innovation (e.g. DEI)  
5. Research (Investigating transformation) 
6. Events (positive impact through MICE meetings and more)  

For more info, visit our Consulting page.

We work with National and Regional Destination Management Organisations as well as Convention Bureaus from around the world.

We’ve supported event organisers, national tourism organisations, local councils, and associations.

If your organisation enquires about our expertise in driving sustainability and regenerative practices in destinations, reach out to us today!

The GDS-Forum is the global event that convenes and unites destination management professionals to catalyse innovation for regeneration. For more information, visit our GDS-Forum page here.

 GDS-Movement is pleased to announce the host city for the 2024 GDS-Forum taking place 15 – 19 October 2024, is Bruges, Belgium. For more information, visit our GDS-Forum page here.

The GDS-Academy provides leading-edge training for event and tourism professionals to turn concepts into action, and then into impact. We run events management courses, storytelling courses, and other destination specialist courses. Click here to find out more. 

Please contact us if you are interested in enrolling in the GDS-Academy, just email academy@gds.earth 

You can download our media kit with our mission and vision, logo, links, and more here.

You can access this comprehensive guide to see how our logo should be used.

Please reach out to our PR Manager, Anja Spice, if you would like to submit an article to the GDS-Movement blog. 

If you would like to share one of our articles on your website, please contact Jess Henson.