Effective stakeholder engagement in remote auditing

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Overview
Learnings
Impact

Introduction

Project details

Project lead: Global Sustainable Tourism Council

Duration: February 2025 – January 2026

Sector focus: Travel and Tourism

Geographical focus: Global

Contact: soyoung@gstc.org

Overview

There is a growing demand in the tourism industry to allow more flexible assurance approaches given the logistical, financial and environmental costs of on-site audits. While the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) permits limited remote audits, there are concerns about the reliability, technological limitations, and the lack of on-site insights.

The project investigated the risks to identify best practices. Combining desk research, interviews, assessment of GSTC's standards, and analysis of audit reports, GSTC identified the opportunities and risks of remote auditing to understand where remote, hybrid and on-site audits are most appropriate.

The project found that the effectiveness of remote auditing depends not only on technology, but also on auditor competence, robust risk assessment and the maturity of an organisation's management system. These insights are helping GSTC develop clearer guidance on when remote auditing can be used while maintaining consistent, high-quality assurance.

Learnings

Remote auditing can reduce travel time and associated environmental impacts, but different audit activities require different approaches. Lower-risk management and reporting activities are often suitable for remote assessment, while higher-risk social and site-based activities require on-site verification.
Clear, risk-based guidance is needed for consistent remote auditing. The project found considerable differences in how certification bodies judged whether activities should be audited remotely, on-site or through a hybrid approach.
Effective remote auditing depends on good audit planning, strong risk assessment and auditor competence, rather than technology alone. The project identified improvements in these areas as essential for credible and consistent audit outcomes.

Impact

The evidence base from this project provided GSTC with a foundation to support the continued development of guidelines that define when remote, hybrid and on-site audits are appropriate and outlines methods for verifying compliance in different situations.

Findings from the project also contributed to guidance on auditing under force majeure conditions, developed in response to heightened geopolitical instability which may necessitate remote assessment, and to the latest version of the GSTC Accreditation Manual for Certification Bodies, which establishes foundational requirements for remote auditing.

By sharing its progress and findings, GSTC aims to contribute to wider learning on remote auditing and support other sustainability systems seeking to maintain credible assurance while adopting more flexible auditing approaches.

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Supported by

The ISEAL Innovations Fund is supported by Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and UK International Development from the UK Government.