Data-Driven Decisions

Strengthening systems that measure arrivals, economic impact, employment, and fiscal revenues is key to be able to manage the development of tourism and to build a strong political economy around the tourism sector. Improving data collection and supporting background analytical work also aids market research for domestic and foreign segments, helping identify opportunities to diversify markets and reduce vulnerabilities.

Over the years, UN Tourism has provided technical assistance to a significant number of Member States to help strengthen their system of tourism statistics and build a Tourism Satellite Account (TSA). In some cases, this has taken the form of targeted coaching and capacity building for professionals from institutes that play a key role in compiling the TSA, including the National Tourism Administration, national bureau of statistics, custom authorities, central bank and tourism business associations.

Recently, new initiatives have been undertaken to support Member States to use big data. This includes data collected in collaboration with credit card and mobile phone providers, for example. This is aimed at strengthening tourism statistics and developing dashboards to make relevant data timely and readily available for a wide range of tourism stakeholders.

In selected countries and destinations, IDC has also been collaborating with the relevant authorities to carry out visitor and resident surveys with a view to collecting relevant data to support decision making processes, strengthening competitiveness and enhancing sustainability. With the recent endorsement by the UN in New York of the Statistical Framework for Measurement the Sustainability of Tourism (MST), new opportunities arise to extend technical assistance to Member States to strengthen data collection in a wide range of areas.