The indicator framework presented in this report was tested and refined through a set of technical workshops and a piloting phase undertaken by the four Spanish regions from late 2023 to mid-2024. The piloting phase evaluated the policy relevance of the draft set of indicators, as well as their feasibility of implementation and benchmarking. As shown in Table 3.1, the piloting identified data sources and developed methodologies that enabled measuring policy issues that had not been possible to measure prior to piloting. The close collaboration between the regions helped leverage synergies and develop new innovative approaches to measuring and monitoring the sustainability of tourism. The project has identified a set of core and supplementary indicators. However, work remains to fill identified data gaps, improve methodologies and regularly evaluate whether the indicators meet policymakers’ information needs.
One critical aspect for future development is to capture not only benefits and pressures from overnight visitors (tourists) but also from same-day visitors, who in some regions and destinations make up a substantial share of visitor numbers. However, due to limited data availability, some indicators such as tourist satisfaction or tourism expenditure currently include only overnight visitors. Where regional averages mask issues at the local level, a next step may be to look at more granular data.
Policy issues around cultural heritage, waste and digitalisation are not covered by the present set of indicators due to a lack of data. The draft set of core indicators had included digitalisation metrics on e-commerce sales and ICT training, however, as the data only refers to businesses with ten or more employees, they do not sufficiently capture the key policy issue for the tourism sector, namely the digital transformation of micro and small enterprises. Furthermore, the current set of indicators only includes a measure on renewable energy use by accommodation establishments but does not capture overall energy consumption of tourism-characteristic industries. As water scarcity is a key issue for many Spanish regions, it would be valuable to understand the water consumption for each tourism-characteristic activity. In coastal regions, cruise tourism plays a key role – monitoring the sub-sector’s impact on regions would be a valuable addition to the supplementary indicators.
Tourism density metrics could be refined by looking at tourism-specific land use categories at sub-regional scale to better distil the tourism impact and identify areas where policy interventions are most urgent, an approach explored by Andalusia and ToT Lab. However, pressures do not necessarily translate into negative perceptions of tourism. Going forward, it would be beneficial to measure residents' perceptions of tourism utilising a comparable methodology across all regions, building on surveys already undertaken in Navarra and Andalusia. International guidance on a common approach, complemented by questions that capture local particularities, would facilitate harmonised measurement of resident perceptions across destinations. Supplementary indicators such as rental housing prices or crime rates need to be refined to obtain tourism-specific measures. In the first instance, correlating metrics with tourism intensity or density rates could be a way to analyse the relationship of these factors with tourism activities.
Due to a lack of data, the indicator set does not measure total greenhouse gas emissions from tourism. However, as climate change mitigation represents a key policy issue, it is important to start monitoring developments, even if the metrics are imperfect. As transport to the destination is the biggest emitter, one of the chosen metrics measures the share of tourists arriving by low-emission transport modes. Given that air travel, and long-distance flights in particular, disproportionately contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, a second metric is proposed to estimate air travel emissions from international arrival by plane. Ultimately, metrics should measure carbon emissions beyond air travel, covering other transport modes as well as emissions from accommodation and other tourism activities. One approach could be to regionalise national air emission accounts data; however, this would require data from regional tourism satellite accounts which only few regions have in place.
The indicator on green mobility infrastructure could be complemented by measuring the cyclotourism services available from the supply side such as bike-friendly accommodation. Distinguishing between different cycling routes including rural and urban would also be an improvement. This would allow for further analysis including to evaluate whether establishing and promoting EuroVelo or other cycling routes has created tourism employment in rural areas where routes pass by. For targeted improvement of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, policymakers would benefit from information on how visitors are using existing infrastructure.
Continuous work to review and improve the system of indicators helps ensure it is ‘fit for purpose’. A policy-led approach to selecting and refining the indicators starts with the policy questions to identify and prioritise data needs (top-down), then analyses data availability and data gaps that need to be closed to answer the key policy questions (bottom-up). This integrated approach limits the number of indicators to a relevant set, contributing to evidence-based policies.
