PR No.: PR 18018

Making tourism statistics a strategic value proposition for Member states is a priority for UNWTO. The Measuring Sustainable Tourism initiative is a response to persistent requests from member states and other tourism stakeholders to understand and monitor sustainable tourism. UNWTO, as the responsible Agency for the tourism relevant SDG-indicators, has a critical role to play in the road to the UN 2030 Development Agenda and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

“Measuring sustainable tourism is fundamental to improve policy action for sustainable development, and will promote one common statistical language which can be compared across countries and different economic sectors, and make tourism’s voice heard when addressing key decisions”, said UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili opening the event.

UNWTO’s Measuring Sustainable Tourism initiative will advance a common understanding on tourism in relation to other key policy areas, ranging from infrastructure to the environment, social affairs, finance or central banking. It will also allow for producing data which is comparable across destinations and with other sectors.

This year’s Committee meeting gathered over 70 participants from 26 countries, the UN and other international organizations. The members agreed to continue to support and contribute to the work ahead in the development of a statistical framework for measuring sustainable tourism which, in turn, can improve governments and tourism stakeholders in the design, and adoption of effective sustainable tourism policies and practices.

The Measuring Sustainable Tourism initiative has obtained the highest level of approval and support by the UNWTO General Assembly and the UN Statistical Commission and will move now onwards to its consolidation in the coming years.

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