As we all know, tourism is an inexhaustible source of revenue, which has been more than demonstrated by tourist powers clamped together as Spain, USA or France. But as all human activity associated with an impact on the environment, so you need to know how to develop this magnificent activity responsibly. In this regard Costa Rica is trying to develop a friendly tourist industry to the environment, or in other words to achieve sustainable development. It is important to clarify that sustainable development or measures taken for tourism development under this scheme, aimed mitigating environmental impact, since as mentioned above all human activity carries an impact. Of vital importance in this matter has been the role of the ICT (Costa Rican Institute of tourism) which has established a programme of certification for sustainable tourism or CST, which consists of categorisation and certification of tourism companies according to the degree in which its operation is approaching to a model of sustainability. For this are assessed four key areas: 1. environment physicist-Biologicoevalua interaction between the company and the surrounding natural environment, involving the implementation of policies and programmes for sustainability, protection of the environment, among others. 2 Service facility (this area corresponds to lodging establishments) are evaluated aspects related to systems and internal processes of the company, in terms of waste management and the use of technologies for electricity and water saving.
2. Service management (this area corresponds to agencies Tour operators) comprises the process through which the company considering all exogenous and endogenous elements, designed a tourist product in line with the market trends and characteristics of the country and the localities where goes to market the product. 3 ClienteSe evaluating the actions carried out management to invite the customer to participate in the implementation of sustainability policies of the company. 4 Environment Socioeconomicose evaluates the identification and interaction of the establishment with the adjacent, analyzing such communities, the degree in which tourism enterprises respond to the growth and development of the region through employment generation or the achievement of benefits for the community.