OECD Tourism Trends and Policies is an international reference and biennial benchmark to support countries in driving sustainable and inclusive tourism growth. The publication brings together internationally comparable data on tourism and highlights good practices and key policy and governance reforms across 50 OECD member and partner countries. It also includes several topical and thematic chapters, and country-specific policy and statistical profiles.
The 2024 edition of OECD Tourism Trends and Policies comes as tourism has rebounded strongly following significant declines in 2020-21 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In some countries, tourism has surpassed previous highs, demonstrating the resilience of tourism demand. However, the strength of the recovery is creating challenges in destinations that are struggling to manage demand and the impacts on local communities and the environment. Tourism can play a key role in fostering economic development that creates decent jobs, enhances social cohesion, and contributes to the shared interests of tourists, residents, and businesses. But the impacts can often be economically, socially, and environmentally unbalanced, and the benefits do not always, or automatically, accrue to local communities.
Many destinations, and governments at all levels, are now developing policies to better manage the social and environmental impacts, particularly from unplanned tourism growth, including through diversifying the tourism offer and managing visitor flows, as well as through investments in more timely and granular data to better understand the potential trade-offs. This is a core thread in this year’s OECD Tourism Trends and Policies which builds on the recent momentum for sustainable tourism and the renewed focus on addressing unbalanced tourism development. The report considers what tourism success looks like and takes a deep dive on the sustainable development and management of tourism. It also highlights the need to accelerate efforts to develop more timely, granular data and measures tailored to the specific policy needs of destinations. A separate chapter zooms-in on tackling tourism workforce issues, particular labour shortages and related skills challenges, and discusses opportunities to address both short- and longer-term weaknesses in the sector.
This flagship publication was produced by the Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE) of the OECD, with co-financing from the European Union. The OECD Tourism Committee approved Chapter 1 on 2 July 2024, Chapters 2 and 3 on 10 June 2024, and the Country Profiles on 22 July 2024.