• Welcome to the Mountain IDEAL Destination Self-Assessment. 

    This self-assessment evaluates a destination's journey and progress towards stewardship and sustainability.

    It is an honor-based system designed for destination managers.

    Once you complete your self-assessment, you will receive an Assessment Report Card which will score your performance against the sustainable destination best practices.

    Your survey results will be treated as confidential.

  • Self-Assessment Format

    The self-assessment begins with a destination profile questionnaire followed by the sustainability assessment.

    Participants have TWO Options for the sustainability assessment:

    1. CORE BEST PRACTICES:
    This assessment includes a set of 18 core best practices, each with one indicator, that could be achieved within six (6) months. Choose this option if you want to determine if you are eligible for the Top 100 Sustainable Destination Program.

    2. FULL STANDARD BEST PRACTICES:
    This assessment includes 52 best practices, each with multiple indicators, that destinations aspire to achieve over a 24-36 month period. Choose this option to evaluate your performance across the full array of sustainable destination best practices. This assessment provides a more accurate account of your sustainability performance.

    Please remember, the more honest your responses, the better the results for realistic planning next steps.

    The self-assessment is hosted on the platform, JotForm.  You have the ability to save your assessment as a draft and return to it later.  Simply click SAVE then follow the prompts to log in or click "Skip Create an Account" to provide your email.  

    Be sure to navigate the assessment using the NEXT and BACK options on the form (below), not the browser navigation bar.

    Thank you for your participation and congratulations for taking the first step towards sustainable tourism and destination stewardship.

  • Destination Profile

    Your contact information is for internal purposes only and will not be shared.



  • Select Your Sustainability Assessment

    Participants have TWO Options for the sustainability assessment:

    1. CORE BEST PRACTICES:
    This assessment includes a set of 18 core best practices, each with one indicator, that could be achieved within six (6) months. Choose this option if you want to determine if you are eligible for the Top 100 Sustainable Destination Program.

    2. FULL STANDARD BEST PRACTICES:
    This assessment includes 52 best practices, each with multiple indicators, that destinations aspire to achieve over a 24-36 month period. Choose this to evaluate your performance across the full array of sustainable destination best practices. This assessment provides a more accurate account of your sustainability performance.

  • CORE BEST PRACTICES:
    This assessment includes a set of 18 core best practices, each with one indicator, that could be achieved within six (6) months. 

    All questions within the sustainability assessment provide a Likert Scale (0-5) to evaluate your destination's performance for a specific best practice (e.g. 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80, or 100% implemented). 

    SCORE THE LEVEL OF IMPLEMENTATION for each question based on TWO FACTORS: 1) Are these "actions" in place; 2) is there "evidence" to show the actions are in place.  

    Each question/best practice contains one or more indicators and should be considered as the sum of all the parts. Therefore, be sure to score the practice based on completion of all components.

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  • FULL SET OF BEST PRACTICES:
    This assessment includes 52 best practices, each with multiple indicators, that destinations aspire to achieve over a 24-36 month period. 

    All questions within the sustainability assessment provide a Likert Scale (0-5) to evaluate your destination's performance for a specific best practice (e.g. 0-100% implemented). 

    Each question/best practice contains one or more indicators and should be considered as the sum of all the parts. Therefore, be sure to score the practice based on completion of all components.

    The assessment questions are split into the 16 themes of the standard. At the end of each theme, there is a comment box where you can provide any additional information.

  • Stewardship

    This section covers standards related to the stewardship of tourism development and management, measuring the destination's approach to maintaining the cultural, environmental, economic, and asethietic integrity of the destination. 

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  • Regulatory Framework

    This section covers standards related to the regulatory framework for tourism development and management; taking into account the destination's laws, regulations, guidelines, and policies. 

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  • Impact Monitoring

    This section covers standards related to the monitoring of tourism development and management impacts on the cultural, environmental, economic, and asethietic integrity of the destination.

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  • Resiliance Planning

    This section covers standards related to the destination's planning for potential risks including climate change, public health and other destination-wide emergencies.

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  • Visitor Use Management

    This section covers standards related to the systems, strategies and guidelines for visitor management in the destination.

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  • Natural and Cultural Heritage

    This section covers standards related to the protection and conservation of natural and cultural heritage assets in the destination. 

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  • Infrastructure

    This section covers standards related to development, management and maintenance of tourism infrastructure (e.g. buildings, roads, trails, etc.). 

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  • Community Engagement

    This section covers standards related to how the community is engaged and included in the process of tourism development and management decision-making.

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  • Community Equity 

    This section covers standards related to how the destination prevents exploitation or descrimination of people and ensures equity for all visitors and residents.

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  • Community Opportunities 

    This section covers standards related to how the destination creates and maintains opportunities for community capacity building and careers in the tourism industry and promotes local businesses.

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  • Waste and Recycling

    This section covers standards related to how the destination measures, monitors and implements waste and recycling management.

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  • Water Quality and Conservation

    This section covers standards related to how the destination measures, monitors and implements water quality and conservation efforts.

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  • Energy Conservation

    This section covers standards related to how the destination measures, monitors and implements energy conservation efforts.

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  • Greenhouse Gas Emissions

    This section covers standards related to how the destination measures, monitors and addresses greenhouse gas emissions.

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  • Pollution Measures

    This section covers standards related to how the destination measures, monitors and addresses light and noise pollution. 

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  • Thank you for chosing to participate in the Mountain IDEAL Full Standard Self-Assessment.  

    Since this is considered a comprehensive assessment, it may take some time to prepare. 

    Therefore, we have created a supplemental planning document with an Excel version of the assessment.  Here you can score your destination's performance and take internal notes for reference. 

    Please continue to the next page and click SUBMIT.  Our team will then send your assessment.  Once completed, return the form to bobbyc@walkingmountains.org to receive your Report Card.

  • By clicking SUBMIT I confirm the provided responses are true and accurate to the best of my knowledge.

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