STATISTICAL FRAMEWORK ON MEASURING THE SUSTAINABILITY OF TOURISM

Africa
15 Jan 2024

Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism (MST) aims to provide an internationally agreed statistical framework to measure the impacts and dependencies of tourism on the economy, society, and the environment. The development of MST owes much to the valuable efforts and collaboration of 44 pioneering countries and more than 30 international organizations, as well as academic institutions and subnational institutions. African country members have substantially contributed to this global effort and multi-year process, including Cabo Verde, Kenya, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa, and Uganda.

Some recent crucial milestones have actively involved African countries, contributing to pushing forward the adoption of the Statistical Framework for MST as an international standard.

At the Extraordinary meeting of the UNWTO Committee on Statistics (held on 16 October 2023 in the margins of the 25th UNWTO General Assembly), H.E. Mr. Louis Sylvestre Radegonde, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Tourism, from Seychelles, together with other leaders from pioneering Ministries and National Statistical Institutes, shared vision on MST and why the time is ripe to aim for achieving global consensus.

Consequently, the 25th UNWTO General Assembly adopted the Statistical Framework for MST, cementing its widespread acceptance by the tourism community.

A Global Consultation on the Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism (SF-MST) took place towards the end of 2023, receiving valuable contributions from Botswana, Lesotho, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Africa.

The final step is to submit the Statistical Framework for MST to the UN Statistical Commission in February or March 2024 for its endorsement. To this end, UNWTO encourages African country members to promote a common country position with your respective National Statistical Institutes, to support the UN endorsement of the Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism (MST).