Trust & Governance Hub

The Trust & Governance Hub explains how CrescentRating safeguards the independence of its research, the integrity of its audits and accreditation, and the privacy and security of the data entrusted to us. It is written for journalists, tourism boards, corporate partners, Accredited Partners, and travelers who rely on our ratings and research.

This Hub covers CrescentRating's governance practices across research and methodology (including the GMTI and the ACES, RIDA, and TRUST frameworks), accreditation and audit oversight, and data privacy and security. It supplements, and does not replace, our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

CrescentRating's research team determines destination scores, rankings, and audit outcomes independently of any commercial or government relationship. Sponsorship, co-publication, or a commissioning relationship never influences a rating, ranking, or accreditation determination.

Where CrescentRating co-publishes research with commercial partners — such as the Global Muslim Travel Index with Mastercard — or conducts a government-commissioned destination assessment, the sponsoring or commissioning party has no editorial input into scores, rankings, or findings. Any staff member with a personal or financial interest in an entity under assessment must recuse themselves from that assessment.

Our proprietary frameworks — ACES, RIDA, TRUST, the Destination Activation Stack, and our other planning, profile, service, and execution models — are developed and periodically reviewed by CrescentRating's research team, informed by industry data, partner feedback, and field audit experience. The current, complete list of our frameworks and models is maintained at crescentrating.com/resources/playbook.

Audits are conducted by trained CrescentRating auditors against the applicable Proprietary Framework's published criteria. Auditors assessing a property have no financial interest in that property and do not participate in commercial discussions with the entity they are auditing.

An Accredited Partner that disputes an audit finding or a Badge revocation under Terms & Conditions Section 3.4 may request an internal review by submitting a written appeal, with supporting evidence, within thirty (30) days of notification. CrescentRating's audit governance team will review the appeal and issue a final written determination.

Badge suspensions and revocations are reviewed by CrescentRating's audit governance team before being issued, to confirm the decision is supported by audit evidence and applied consistently with our published accreditation criteria.

We collect and use personal data only as described in our Privacy Policy, and we do not sell personal data to third parties. Survey and research respondent data is used solely for internal analysis; our published research reports only aggregated, anonymized findings.

• Read our Privacy PolicyHow we collect, use, share, and protect personal data.→

We maintain administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect the data we hold, including access controls limiting data to authorized personnel, encryption of data in transit, and regular review of our security practices. Further detail is available in our Privacy Policy.

If you believe a published rating, accreditation status, or research finding contains an error, contact us with supporting evidence at [email protected]. We review every substantiated correction request and, where warranted, issue a public correction.

The governance principles on this page are given legal effect in the following documents:

• Terms & ConditionsGoverns use of our websites, platforms, research, badges, B2B tools, and events.→
• Privacy PolicyHow we collect, use, share, and protect personal data.→
• Cookie PolicyThe cookies we use and how to manage your preferences.→