(Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism, WTO, 2024, pag. 14)
1.23. Tourism is a social, cultural and economic phenomenon related to the movement of people outside their usual place of residence. It has an impact on the economy, the natural and built environment, the local population at the places visited and the visitors themselves(2) .
1.24. Sustainable tourism is tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts whilst addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities(3) .
1.25. Sustainable tourism is a multi-faceted concept that involves
(i) making optimal use of environmental resources, including maintaining essential ecological processes and helping to conserve natural resources and biodiversity;
(ii) respecting the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities, by conserving their living cultural heritage and traditional values and contributing to intercultural understanding and tolerance; and
(iii) ensuring viable, long-term economic operations that provide socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders that are fairly distributed, including stable employment and income-earning opportunities and social services to host communities, and contributing to poverty alleviation(4) .
1.26. Depending on one’s perspective, different aspects and areas of focus of sustainable tourism will be relevant. To support understanding of the different potential entry points, Figure 1.3 shows the connections between 12 policy areas and the three key dimensions of sustainable tourism.
Figure 1.3: Relationship between policy areas and the key dimensions of sustainability
Source: United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) & United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), 2005)
1.27. Further, to support application of sustainable tourism concepts, UNWTO and others have developed guidelines for the sustainable management of tourism5 covering all kinds of tourism in all types of destinations, including mass tourism and the various niche tourism segments. These guidelines embody sustainability principles concerning the environmental, economic and socio-cultural aspects of tourism development, and a suitable balance must be established between these three dimensions to guarantee tourism’s long-term sustainability.
1.28. Thus, sustainable tourism development requires the informed participation of all relevant stakeholders, as well as strong political leadership to ensure wide participation and consensus building. Sustainable tourism is best considered as a continuous process rather than a target state and, as such, its practice requires constant monitoring of impacts and introducing the necessary preventive and/or corrective measures whenever necessary. Sustainable tourism should also maintain a high level of tourist satisfaction and ensure a meaningful experience for tourists, raising their awareness about sustainability issues and promoting sustainable tourism practices amongst them(6) .
1.29. The concepts, principles and practices of sustainable tourism(7) have been a topic of discussion in tourism circles for many decades(8) . The ongoing and building interest in sustainable tourism has been driven by two key factors. First, there was the energizing influence of the 1987 Brundtland Commission report “Our Common Future” and the subsequent 1992 Rio Summit on sustainable development. While the ideas around sustainable development had been under discussion for some time prior, this work and the high-profile engagement placed sustainable development clearly on the “political map”.
1.30. The response to these ideas has been reflected in a range of contributions to policy and measurement concerning sustainable tourism. These contributions include milestone reports What Tourism Managers Need to Know (UNWTO, 1997) and Making Tourism More Sustainable: A Guide for Policy Makers (UNEP/UNWTO, 2005); as well as several UN General Assembly resolutions on sustainable tourism for poverty eradication and environmental protection (e.g. A/RES/69/233 and A/73/274 in 2014 and 2018 respectively).
1.31. Further, the ideas have been embraced in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015. Tourism’s connection to the SDGs has been an ongoing focus for UNWTO and has given additional impetus to the long-standing work on the sustainability of tourism described above. Examples of UNWTO work in relation to the SDGs include regular reports to the UN General Assembly(9) , the publication “Tourism and the Sustainable Development Goals – Journey to 2030”(1)0 and the joint UNWTO-JICA publication “Tourism and the Sustainable Development Goals: A Toolkit of Indicators for Tourism Projects”(11) .
1.32. The second key factor has been the tremendous growth in tourism activity over the past decades reflecting ongoing increases in household income and the long-term decline in relative prices of travel. This growth has established five lines of interest in tourism’s sustainability:
i. the reality that in contributing a larger share of economic activity in most countries, tourism activity is contributing more to the use of environmental resources and its negative impact on the natural environment is increasingly evident.
ii. the notion that tourism activity can provide a path by which lower income countries and regions might improve their standard of living and support more sustainable development.
iii. the recognition of the dependence of tourism activity on its environmental and social contexts and the need to keep these underpinning resources in good condition and even contribute to their protection and improvement.
iv. the understanding that tourism has benefits for residents in tourism destinations and visitors (and their origin countries) from a wider social perspective including through personal wellbeing and relaxation, social cohesion, and building peace and mutual understanding across locations.
v. the potential for tourism to build a wider appreciation of a country’s reputation and hence serve as an impetus for foreign investment to underpin sustainability more generally.
1.33. The profile of sustainable tourism was further enhanced when 2017 was declared the United Nations International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development (IY2017). The discussion around IY2017 recognized that tourism has the potential to contribute, directly or indirectly, to all the 17 SDGs. In particular, targets relating to sustainable tourism are explicitly referenced in SDG 8 on decent work and economic growth, SDG 12 on responsible consumption and production and SDG 14 on life below water.
1.34. Finally, tourism’s sustainability has taken on new angles as a result of the effects from the Covid-19 pandemic. Tourism was the most affected of all sectors, with businesses, jobs and livelihoods around the world severely impacted. This was particularly true for many developing countries, especially small island developing states (SIDS), as well as for women and youth, for whom tourism is a leading source of opportunity. In turn, the Covid19 crisis represented an opportunity to rethink the tourism sector and its contribution to the people and planet, to build back better towards a more sustainable, inclusive and resilient tourism sector that ensures the benefits of tourism are enjoyed widely and fairly. Both the downturn in travel and the return of tourism post Covid-19 have highlighted the importance of data on all aspects of tourism and its connection to economic, environmental and social contexts.
2 International Recommendations for Tourism Statistics 2008 (para. 1.1)
3 UNEP/UNWTO 2005, Making Tourism More Sustainable: A Guide for Policy Makers
4 UNEP/UNWTO 2005, Making Tourism More Sustainable: A Guide for Policy Makers.
5 UNEP/UNWTO 2005, Making Tourism More Sustainable: A Guide for Policy Makers.
6 Ibid.
7 Here we include the development of ‘sustainable tourism’ products and the discussion around the sustainability of tourism more holistically.
8 See for example Wagar (1964); Wenkam (1975); and Cohen (1978).
9 All reports are available at https://www.unwto.org/sustainable-development/unga
10 World Tourism Organization and United Nations Development Programme (2017), Tourism and the Sustainable Development Goals – Journey to 2030, UNWTO, Madrid, DOI: https://doi.org/10.18111/9789284419401
11 World Tourism Organization (2023), Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals through Tourism – Toolkit of Indicators for Projects (TIPs), UNWTO, Madrid, https://doi.org/10.18111/9789284424344
Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism (SF-MST): Final Draft Prepared by the World Tourism Organization, 2024
BG-4a-SF-MST-E.pdf (un.org)