Sustainable Tourism

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. [...] It is a continuous process and requires constant monitoring of impacts”.

SDG indicator 12.b.1 measures the level of statistical capacity at the national and global levels to credibly and comparably monitor the sustainability of tourism, especially the economic and environmental dimensions. It has the added advantage of not only monitoring and encouraging attainment of target 12.b, but also of supporting the monitoring of other targets related to tourism, notably 8.9. 

It does so by tracking progress on the implementation of two standard accounting tools relevant for sustainable tourism (the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) and the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA)) which enable the derivation of key indicators on tourism’s economic and environmental impact (SDG 8.9.1 derives from the tourism satellite account). 

Monitoring indicator 12.b thus provides a motivation to put in place the necessary statistical development in countries towards implementing the broader Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism (SF-MST). SF-MST not only focusses on the economic and environmental dimensions of tourism through the TSA and SEEA but also on the social dimension of tourism, allowing for a comprehensive picture of tourism’s role in sustainable development. Indeed, the UN Statistical Commission has recognized the SF-MST as the main tool for monitoring the contribution of tourism to the SDG Agenda.

In general, the collected data show that the availability of TSA and SEEA data has significantly increased at the global level since 2009, showcasing the efforts of Member States to develop and implement tools to monitor (sustainable) tourism as called for in Target 12.b. This is a positive development towards measuring and understanding the sustainability of tourism and its role in achieving the SDGs.