Measuring and Monitoring the Sustainability of Tourism at Regional Level in Spain

Chapter 2. Wider work on sustainability initiatives and indicator frameworks for tourism

Abstract

Developing indicators to measure the sustainability of tourism has been a focus of work for the OECD and other international institutions for over three decades. This chapter provides an overview of existing sustainability initiatives and indicator frameworks for tourism. While considerable progress has been achieved in the quality and availability of tourism statistics, tourism-specific statistical definitions and regularly produced statistics capturing environmental and social impacts of tourism have tended to lag behind. The recent endorsement of the Statistical Framework Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism (SF-MST) by the United Nations Statistics Commission is an important step towards forging international consensus on the production of reliable and comparable data on the economic, environmental, and social aspects of tourism. However, more work is needed to develop a practical approach to monitoring that enables comparability, while taking context specificities into consideration, and promotes indicators as a tool to enhance evidence-based policymaking towards sustainable development.

Sustainable tourism has been defined as tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities (UNEP & UNWTO, 2005[1]). The need to manage tourism development in a socially, environmentally and economically sustainable way has become more pressing in recent years. The tourism sector has a high climate and environmental footprint, and its contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions is estimated between 8% and 11% of global emissions (OECD, 2022[2]). The tourism sector is energy intensive, it increases waste production, and its rapid growth over recent decades has contributed to deteriorating marine and land ecosystems. Environmental challenges are intricately linked to social issues. A more sustainable tourism needs to be inclusive and requires the empowerment of local residents to participate in and drive decision making for tourism. Participative, community-led destination management and experience development approaches can help to achieve this in a way that benefits local stakeholders. Ultimately, positive and negative impacts of tourism depend on how activities are planned, developed and managed. Shifting to more balanced tourism development requires a strengthened evidence base to guide decision making.

The development of data and indicators measuring the sustainability of tourism has been a focus of work for over three decades, including for the OECD and other international institutions (OECD, 2003[3]; UNWTO, 1997[4]; UNEP and MSCD, 1999[5]; Eurostat, 2006[6]). However, establishing and maintaining a reliable evidence base that supports decision making has proven challenging (OECD, 2021[7]). Despite the shared aim of improving the evidence base for tourism policymaking and sustainable tourism development, many frameworks include long lists of indicators that are rarely compiled or used due to limited resources and data availability. Moreover, existing frameworks and initiatives often define and conceptualise indicators differently and take different methodological approaches. This heterogeneity hinders comparability across countries, regions and destinations. Decision makers face a wide, and often conflicting array of concepts, methodologies and data that is difficult to navigate and choose from. This project aims to support regions in navigating this complex landscape and provides a parsimonious set of indicators that can be operationalised and used to improve tourism planning and decision making.

Existing initiatives and frameworks

Several initiatives to measure and monitor the sustainability of tourism on either international, national or sub-national levels exist or are under development. In 1997, UN Tourism (formerly United Nations World Tourism Organization) (UNWTO, 1997[4]) published a list of tourism-specific sustainability indicators, which was updated in 2004 as the Guidebook on Indicators of Sustainable Development for Tourism Destinations (UNWTO, 2004[8]). The guidebook included more than 700 indicators for 50 sustainability issues. Soon after the first publication of the UN Tourism guide, the development of sustainable tourism indicators started to become a common initiative for tourism destinations. For example, the German Federal Environment Agency published a report on indicators in the Baltic Sea Region in 2001. The following year, in 2002, the English Tourism Council presented a set of sustainability indicators for tourism destinations (White et al., 2006[9]). In the same year, the French Institute for the Environment developed a set of national indicators, distinguishing sustainability parameters according to different destination types such as coastal, mountain, rural or urban destinations (Ceron and Dubois, 2001[10]). This was followed by a range of further international initiatives for measuring the sustainable development of tourism, including the OECD and other international institutions (OECD, 2003[3]; Dupeyras and MacCallum, 2013[11]; UNEP and MSCD, 1999[5]; Eurostat, 2006[6]). For example, in 2003 the OECD proposed a framework and set of indicators for the integration of environmental and broader sustainability concerns into tourism policies (OECD, 2003[3]). The report put emphasis on the pressures tourism activities exert on the environment, also addressing social, cultural and economic interdependencies.

While quality and availability of tourism statistics have continued to advance over time, they have typically focused on capturing the economic impacts, guided by the International Recommendations for Tourism Statistics (IRTS) and the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) methodological framework (United Nations, 2008[12]; UN Statistics Division, Eurostat, OECD, 2008[13]). Further tourism-specific statistical definitions and regularly produced statistics capturing environmental and social impacts of tourism lag behind. The recent endorsement of the Statistical Framework – Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism (SF-MST) by the United Nations Statistics Commission is an important step forward in forging international consensus on the production of reliable and comparable data on the economic, environmental, and social aspects of tourism (UNWTO, 2023[14]). This UN Tourism-led statistical framework provides fundamental concepts, definitions, and data organisation structures for tourism statistics across economic, social, and environmental impacts, with a primary focus on national measurement. In 2023, UN Tourism also proposed an initial set of 30 indicators to measure sustainable tourism, cutting across four pillars of general pressure, economic, environmental and social indicators (UNWTO, 2023[15]). Further work is needed to provide methodological guidance to support the concrete implementation of the statistical framework and derive a meaningful set of internationally comparable indicators for sustainable tourism development.

Improving statistics and indicators for tourism is a key pillar of the EU Tourism Transition Pathway (European Commission, 2022[16]) and the topic of pledges and commitments from public and private stakeholders (European Commission, 2023[17]). Statistics and indicators are also a key focus of the multi-annual EU Work Plan of the European Agenda for Tourism 2030 (Council of the European Union, 2022[18]), which includes the EU Tourism Dashboard. This tool brings together existing data to understand the performance of tourism at country and sub-national level. The Dashboard is structured around three policy pillars and uses a range of methodological principles and data sources, including from national statistical agencies, Eurostat, and UN Tourism. Other European-level initiatives include the European Tourism Indicators System [ETIS] (European Union, 2016[19]) and MITOMED+ (based upon the ETIS framework with a focus on coastal and maritime tourism). Previous work by Eurostat (2006[6]), led by Sweden, proposed a core set of 20 indicators for measuring the sustainable development of tourism at the national, regional and local level. The World Economic Forum Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index has evolved into a Development Index, with revised indicators focusing on the sustainable and resilience development of the sector (WEF, 2022[20]).

Related initiatives such as Green Key, the Global Destination Sustainability Index and the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) criteria are also supporting businesses and destinations in measuring and monitoring their sustainability performance. In particular, the GSTC criteria provide a framework for measuring and managing sustainable tourism practices at the destination level. However, in practice destinations have been developing their own indicator sets based on GSTC recommendations and gaps remain concerning data collection methodologies or measurement approaches to be adopted. Moreover, the indicators focus primarily on verification and certification processes rather than on the measurement of impacts in tourism destinations.

At country level, sustainability is a key pillar of many new and updated national tourism strategies and action plans, including in Denmark, Finland, Portugal and Slovenia (see Box 2.1 and Box 2.2). Sustainability indicators are increasingly being embedded in these strategies or subsequently developed as part of the monitoring frameworks. Indicators measuring the sustainability of tourism are also being developed at sub-national level, including to support a growing focus on destination management.

Box 2.1. Country example: Measuring and monitoring the sustainability of tourism in Denmark

In collaboration with VisitDenmark, the Centre for Regional and Tourism Research (CRT) developed a system of indicators for measuring the sustainability of tourism in Denmark at destination and municipal level. The indicators were developed building on a literature review and a participatory process involving destinations, businesses and tourism associations. Most indicators are linked to Denmark’s national tourism strategy. Three key requirements guided the choice of indicators – the indicators should:

• Be easy to understand and interpret

• Rely on bottom-up data

• Be internationally comparable

The resulting system includes 22 indicators across three dimensions of sustainability:

 

Social	Economic	Environmental
Tourists’ satisfaction	Bednights	Accommodation with certification
Local satisfaction	Arrivals	Electricity consumption in tourism industry
Number of beds per 100 residents	Seasonality in bednights	Heating consumption in tourism industry
Tourism intensity	Average spend of tourists per day	Water consumption in tourism industry
Tourism density	Average length of stay	Carbon footprint
Inclusion of marginalised labour	Tourism-related employment
Seasonality in employment	Local ownership of tourism-related firms
Educational level of employment	Labour productivity
	Tourism-related tax revenue

15 of the 22 indicators can currently be measured at destination and municipality level. However, data availability differs between the three dimensions. The Environmental dimension is the least advanced and will require further work going forward: Fewer indicators were identified (5) compared to the other dimensions (8/9) and data is currently only available for one of the five environmental indicators (i.e., accommodation establishments with certification). Indicators measuring water and electricity consumption require improved granularity as data is currently only available at national level. A separate research project is testing a methodological approach to measure the carbon footprint.

Striving for coherence with existing international frameworks, the system of indicators seeks to align with EU frameworks to the extent possible. 13 indicators are identical to indicators featured in the EU Tourism Dashboard; these were included for reasons of both comparability and data availability.

Data collection is financed by VisitDenmark. It builds on strong co-operation with the national statistical institute which provides data input. Data is then processed by CRT to calculate the indicators. The results allow comparing destinations’ performance against each of the indicators. To inform decision-making, destination management and marketing organisations can access the data via a Dashboard.

Box 2.2. Country example: Measuring and monitoring the sustainability of tourism in Portugal

Turismo de Portugal developed a Sustainable Tourism Indicators System [SITS] (Turismo de Portugal, 2023[21]) in line with Portugal’s national tourism strategy 2027. The economic, social and environmental indicators are directly linked to targets in the national tourism strategy and are designed to monitor progress against achieving the strategic goals.

Striving for international comparability, Turismo de Portugal took into consideration existing frameworks for the development of its indicator system, including the Indicators of Sustainable Development for Tourism Destinations (UNWTO, 2004[8]) and ETIS, the European Tourism Indicators System for sustainable destination management (European Union, 2016[19]). The central goal was to develop a practical approach to measurement geared to inform decision-making.

The resulting set covers 43 indicators, articulated around three sustainability dimensions and 11 thematic areas (see table below). Data is currently available for 37 of these 43 indicators.

 

Economic	Social	Environmental
Seasonality	Accessibility	Environmental management
Economic benefits	Pressure	Energy management
Employment	Tourist satisfaction	Water management
	Local satisfaction	Solid waste management

For the compilation of the indicators, Turismo de Portugal complements official data sources with experimental and alternative data – including from mobile network operators and social media. To further improve data availability, they have introduced new surveys. Turismo de Portugal also supports tourism destinations in becoming members of the International Network of Sustainable Tourism Observatories (INSTO) and establish their own data infrastructures, which can then be leveraged for national monitoring. The indicators are displayed in an online dashboard, publicly available on Turismo de Portugal’s knowledge management portal TravelBI.

References

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