Mountain IDEAL 

A Destination Stewardship Toolkit for Resort, Rural, Recreation, and Gateway Communities

 

 
 

Program Overview

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Destination Stewardship is the big-picture approach to the careful and responsible management of "common pool" resources (e.g. public lands, climate, water, affordable housing, equitable access). It requires community-wide collaboration and participatory planning to identify a shared vision and common goals.

Mountain IDEAL is your destination stewardship toolkit. 

At its core, Mountain IDEAL is a sustainable destination management standard that is formally recognized by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council. The standard was designed to guide destination managers through the process of implementing a stewardship framework to advance sustainable community development through responsible, regenerative, and transformational tourism. 

The Mountain IDEAL Destination Stewardship Framework aims to: 

  • Improve quality-of-life attributes
  • Enhance visitor experience
  • Safeguard sense of place
  • Amplify community engagement & equity
  • Activate economic development
  • Drive sustainable growth
  • Protect public lands and recreation assets
  • Regenerate biodiversity and environmental resources
  • Celebrate diversity & cultural heritage
  • Manage visitor impacts

 

Program Toolkit

Assessment Tools

Complete the free self-assessment to evaluate your destination's performance of the Mountain IDEAL best practices. Once the assessment is submitted, we will provide destination with a report card. These results can help local stakeholders identify priorities and define a roadmap for improvement...


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Planning Services

Connect with our destination stewardship planners for mentoring, turnkey templates, and/or advisory services for any number of research, planning, development, and implementation projects such as Destination Management Plans, Carrying Capacity Studies, Sustainable Business Programs, and more...

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Recognition Programs

Participate in an international recognition program offered through our partners at Green Destinations. There are two options: 1) Top 100 Sustainability Stories for those destinations who are just starting out, and 2) Third Party Certification for those destinations who have made significant progress...

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