Was it time to act on measuring sustainable tourism a decade ago?

The “Manila Call for Action on Meas­ur­ing Sus­tain­able Tour­ism” says tour­ism min­is­ters, stat­ist­ic­al chiefs, and envir­on­ment­al offi­cials are “mobil­ized by the strong con­vic­tion that cred­ible and com­pre­hens­ive data on sus­tain­able tour­ism is key for effect­ive, evid­ence-based policies and man­age­ment in order to sur­mount cur­rent chal­lenges and cap­it­al­ize on opportunities”.

“It’s a first step that should have been taken more than a dec­ade ago – when some of us were act­ively call­ing for it.” — Geof­frey Lipman

Dr Susanne Beck­en, Pro­fess­or of Sus­tain­able Tour­ism at Grif­fith Uni­ver­sity and Dir­ect­or of the Grif­fith Insti­tute of Tour­ism, writ­ing for “GT” Insights last month asked: “How do we know if com­mon claims of tour­ism as a tool for poverty alle­vi­ation, a vehicle for peace, a mech­an­ism to save biod­iversity and so forth, are true? Where are the data to show that these bene­fits occur for real?”

Beck­en added: “The Meas­ure-To-Man­age prin­ciple has nev­er been more per­tin­ent than in today’s world where resources are dwind­ling, pop­u­la­tions are grow­ing, and eco­sys­tem thresholds are being approached.”

SUNx co-founder Geof­frey Lip­man wrote from the Manila con­fer­ence this week that the declar­a­tion should be “half as wordy [with] twice as much imple­ment­a­tion [actioned] four times as fast [with] real multi-stake­hold­er checks on deliv­ery […] And it needs to have more emphas­is on meas­ur­ing cli­mate resilience.”

Lip­man added: “We need to expand our vis­ion of meas­ure­ment of sus­tain­able tour­ism. We are mov­ing into a new age of SDGs and Par­is targets.

“Linked Envir­on­ment and Tour­ism Satel­lite Accounts are a good step. But it’s a first step that should have been taken more than a dec­ade ago – when some of us were act­ively call­ing for it.”

On the SDGs, he wrote: “We have to cut through the admir­able but dan­ger­ous, shift­ing clut­ter of 17 SDGs, 169 tar­gets and 304 indic­at­ors with hun­dreds of nation­al and supra-nation­al groups with their ver­sion of the trans­form­a­tion roadmap for the future of everything.”

Lip­man recom­mends three “points of focus” that any­one seek­ing sus­tain­ab­il­ity can “eas­ily check”:

1. Are the impacts meas­ured and man­aged coher­ently—the good and the bad ones?
2. Does it have green growth at the core—low car­bon, Inclu­sion­ary, hyper-con­nec­ted, bio-diversity sens­it­ive & resource efficient?
3. Is it future focused—reflect­ing Par­is 2050 tar­gets, the SDGs, and the World Eco­nom­ic Forum’s Fourth Indus­tri­al Revolution?

Accord­ing to the UNWTO, “a core com­pon­ent of the con­fer­ence will be the present­a­tion of the first draft of a new stat­ist­ic­al frame­work for tour­ism —one that integ­rates the vari­ous dimen­sions of sus­tain­able tour­ism (eco­nom­ic, envir­on­ment­al and social) and across rel­ev­ant spa­tial levels (glob­al, nation­al and subnational)”.

It is unclear wheth­er the Manila declar­a­tion is meant to be that first draft or that the draft will be pre­pared by rap­por­teurs after the event. Pre­sum­ably (hope­fully) the lat­ter, for the declar­a­tion, as Lip­man poin­ted out, is no framework.

“The Meas­ure-To-Man­age prin­ciple has nev­er been more per­tin­ent than in today’s world where resources are dwind­ling, pop­u­la­tions are grow­ing, and eco­sys­tem thresholds are being approached.” — Dr Susanne Becken

One won­ders wheth­er exist­ing work, such as the Glob­al Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Dash­board, will be con­sidered or incor­por­ated. Beck­en, who is a lead research­er for the Dash­board, wrote that it meas­ures and mon­it­ors tourism’s con­tri­bu­tion to sus­tain­able devel­op­ment across a “range of key sus­tain­ab­il­ity dimen­sions” and that it is use­ful to mul­tiple stake­hold­ers — from gov­ern­ment to busi­ness — at many levels — from glob­al to local.

Quite rightly UNWTO recog­nises that as much as meas­ur­ing sus­tain­able tour­ism is a tech­nic­al exer­cise it will require “stake­hold­er engage­ment, inter-insti­tu­tion­al coordin­a­tion and polit­ic­al leadership”.

Jointly organ­ised by the Depart­ment of Tour­ism, Phil­ip­pines and the World Tour­ism Organ­iz­a­tion (UNWTO) in Manila, the 6th Inter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence on Tour­ism Stat­ist­ics: Meas­ur­ing Sus­tain­able Tour­ism com­menced with a Min­is­teri­al Roundtable, Wed­nes­day morn­ing, June 21 focused on the need for more integ­rated, cred­ible data to man­age and pro­mote a more sus­tain­able tour­ism sector.

Tour­ism lead­ers from UNWTO, Belarus, Bel­gi­um, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, Fiji, France, Ger­many, Indone­sia, Kenya, Mex­ico, Oman, Peru, Phil­ip­pines, Saudi Ara­bia, Seychelles, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzer­land, Thai­l­and, and Zim­b­ab­we participated.

The remainder of the week (Wed­nes­day after­noon to Fri­day) fol­lowed a tra­di­tion­al con­fer­ence format in which policy lead­ers, stat­ist­i­cians and aca­dem­ics tackled issues in con­sol­id­at­ing data to sup­port the tour­ism industry and meas­ure its eco­nom­ic, social, and envir­on­ment­al impacts.

The fol­low­ing is the full text of the Manila declar­a­tion (or down­load it):

Manila Call for Action on Measuring Sustainable Tourism

We, the rep­res­ent­at­ives of tour­ism, eco­nom­ic, envir­on­ment­al and oth­er related admin­is­tra­tions, stat­ist­ic­al insti­tutes, inter­na­tion­al and region­al organ­iz­a­tions, the private sec­tor, the aca­demia and civil soci­ety, gathered at the 6th UNWTO Inter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence on Tour­ism Stat­ist­ics: Meas­ur­ing Sus­tain­able Tour­ism, organ­ized by the Gov­ern­ment of the Phil­ip­pines and the World Tour­ism Organ­iz­a­tion (UNWTO) on 21 – 24 June 2017 in Manila, the Phil­ip­pines, and on the occa­sion of the Inter­na­tion­al Year of Sus­tain­able Tour­ism for Devel­op­ment, 2017:

1. Acknow­ledge that sus­tain­able tour­ism con­trib­utes to the three dimen­sions of sus­tain­able devel­op­ment – eco­nom­ic, social and envir­on­ment­al – and to the 17 Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals (SDGs) of the uni­ver­sal 2030 Agenda for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment, as affirmed by the United Nations (UN) Gen­er­al Assembly when announ­cing the adop­tion of the Inter­na­tion­al Year of Sus­tain­able Tour­ism for Devel­op­ment, 20171.
2. Draw atten­tion to the fact that tour­ism has become one of the fast­est grow­ing and most import­ant eco­nom­ic sec­tors in the world, bene­fit­ing des­tin­a­tions and com­munit­ies world­wide. With over 1.2 bil­lion inter­na­tion­al overnight vis­it­ors and many more domest­ic vis­it­ors in 2016, the sec­tor rep­res­ents 10% of the world’s GDP and accounts for 1 in 10 jobs glob­ally. This growth comes with the need to uphold the found­a­tions of prosper­ity for tour­ism des­tin­a­tions: the rich nat­ur­al resources of our plan­et and its diverse cul­tur­al heritage.
3. Recall that sus­tain­able tour­ism is defined as “tour­ism that takes full account of its cur­rent and future eco­nom­ic, social and envir­on­ment­al impacts, address­ing the needs of vis­it­ors, the industry, the envir­on­ment and host com­munit­ies”. Sus­tain­able tour­ism should thus make optim­al use of envir­on­ment­al resources, respect host com­munit­ies and ensure viable, long-term eco­nom­ic oper­a­tions, provid­ing bene­fits that are dis­trib­uted fairly among all stakeholders.
4. Recog­nize that sus­tain­able tour­ism drives inclus­ive eco­nom­ic growth and social devel­op­ment by pro­mot­ing entre­pren­eur­ship, cre­at­ing jobs and fight­ing poverty, and can also encour­age envir­on­ment­al pro­tec­tion, cul­tur­al her­it­age pre­ser­va­tion, and stronger peace and mutu­al under­stand­ing around the world.
5. Recall that with the adop­tion of sev­er­al UN Gen­er­al Assembly res­ol­u­tions on the import­ance of sus­tain­able tour­ism as a tool for devel­op­ment, the need to bet­ter under­stand and track pro­gress towards a sus­tain­able glob­al tour­ism sec­tor is more press­ing than ever.
6. Are mobil­ized by the strong con­vic­tion that cred­ible and com­pre­hens­ive data on sus­tain­able tour­ism is key for effect­ive, evid­ence-based policies and man­age­ment in order to sur­mount cur­rent chal­lenges and cap­it­al­ize on opportunities.
7. Appre­ci­ate the achieve­ments made in tour­ism meas­ure­ment over the past dec­ades, in par­tic­u­lar the two offi­cial UN stat­ist­ic­al stand­ards for meas­ur­ing tour­ism adop­ted in 2008: the Inter­na­tion­al Recom­mend­a­tions for Tour­ism Stat­ist­ics 2008 and the Tour­ism Satel­lite Account: Recom­men­ded Meth­od­o­lo­gic­al Frame­work 2008. Togeth­er, these stat­ist­ic­al frame­works enable coun­tries to pro­duce data that is cred­ible and com­par­able –across coun­tries, over time and in con­cert with oth­er stand­ards– based data. These frame­works help integ­rate and organ­ize data for the pur­poses of deriv­ing indic­at­ors such as tour­ism GDP.
8. Advoc­ate for the devel­op­ment of a Stat­ist­ic­al Frame­work for Meas­ur­ing Sus­tain­able Tour­ism (MST Frame­work) that extends these frame­works bey­ond their eco­nom­ic focus, to incor­por­ate envir­on­ment­al, social and cul­tur­al dimen­sions and across spa­tial levels (glob­al, nation­al and sub-national).
9. Strongly believe that devel­op­ing and imple­ment­ing a MST Frame­work is the crit­ic­al next step in sup­port­ing uni­ver­sal, cross-sec­tori­al, sus­tain­able tour­ism policies and prac­tices that work from an integ­rated, coher­ent and robust inform­a­tion base.
10. Under­line that the bene­fits of an MST Frame­work for decision makers and oth­er stake­hold­ers include: 
    1. The pro­vi­sion of a com­mon lan­guage for dis­cuss­ing sus­tain­able tour­ism with­in the tour­ism sec­tor and with oth­er key policy areas such as plan­ning, industry, infra­struc­ture, envir­on­ment, social affairs, fin­ance and cent­ral banks;
    2. The capa­city to com­pare the per­form­ance of the tour­ism sec­tor and the impacts of dif­fer­ent policies on a con­sist­ent basis with oth­er sec­tors and in dif­fer­ent des­tin­a­tions and countries;
    3. The pro­vi­sion of a basis for improv­ing co-ordin­a­tion in data col­lec­tion and com­pil­a­tion, as well as for improv­ing insti­tu­tion­al arrange­ments for the gov­ernance and man­age­ment of stat­ist­ics on sus­tain­able tourism;
    4. The pro­vi­sion of a single, coher­ent and com­pre­hens­ive pic­ture of the state of sus­tain­able tour­ism and its trends, in all its dimen­sions and across all spa­tial scales.
11. Wel­come the pre­lim­in­ary draft of the MST Frame­work as a launch pad with which to fur­ther the glob­al dis­cus­sion, and appre­ci­ate the sig­ni­fic­ant pro­gress achieved to date through pilot stud­ies and oth­er rel­ev­ant work at inter­na­tion­al, nation­al and sub­n­a­tion­al, includ­ing loc­al levels presen­ted at the Manila Con­fer­ence. This reaf­firms our con­vic­tion that an MST Frame­work is not only highly rel­ev­ant but also feasible.
12. Emphas­ize that inform­a­tion from the Frame­work will improve our abil­ity to address vital and urgent policy ques­tions on sus­tain­able tour­ism; includ­ing ques­tions such as: 
    • How can the use of energy, water and oth­er resources be optimized?
    • What are the trends in land use (includ­ing water and coastal areas) for tour­ism purposes?
    • What is the waste water and sol­id waste res­ult­ing from tour­ism activ­ity and how is it dealt with?
    • How does tour­ism con­trib­ute to employ­ment opportunities?
    • What is the impact of vis­it­ors on cul­tur­al and her­it­age sites and how do they affect their preservation?
    • How do loc­al com­munit­ies bene­fit from tour­ism and how are they impacted by it?
    • What activ­it­ies are being under­taken by tour­ism indus­tries to main­tain pro­tec­ted areas and oth­er nat­ur­al fea­tures (nation­al parks, beaches) in good condition?
    • How does the envir­on­ment­al per­form­ance of tour­ism sec­tor com­pare to oth­er sectors?
13. Acknow­ledge that design­ing and imple­ment­ing an MST Frame­work is a pri­or­ity in the con­text of meas­ur­ing pro­gress towards the Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals (SDGs) and in response to the needs of gov­ern­ments and tour­ism stakeholders.
14. Recall that the United Nations recog­nizes UNWTO as the UN Spe­cial­ized Agency for tour­ism and as the appro­pri­ate organ­iz­a­tion to col­lect, ana­lyze, pub­lish, stand­ard­ize and improve the stat­ist­ics of tour­ism glob­ally, and to pro­mote the integ­ra­tion of these stat­ist­ics with­in the sphere of the UN system.
15. Appre­ci­ate the work of UNWTO in lead­ing the devel­op­ment of an MST Frame­work through the Work­ing Group of Experts on Meas­ur­ing Sus­tain­able Tour­ism, under the aus­pices of the UNWTO Com­mit­tee on Stat­ist­ics and Tour­ism Satel­lite Account, and in close cooper­a­tion with rel­ev­ant part­ners and experts.
16. Wel­come the sup­port from the UN Stat­ist­ic­al Com­mis­sion, the highest decision-mak­ing body in stat­ist­ics glob­ally, for the devel­op­ment of a Stat­ist­ic­al Frame­work for Meas­ur­ing Sus­tain­able Tour­ism that includes indic­at­ors for sus­tain­able tour­ism, meas­ure­ment at sub-nation­al level and pilot pro­jects, as well as the devel­op­ment of a com­pil­a­tion guide for the Tour­ism Satel­lite Account and a tech­nic­al note link­ing the Tour­ism Satel­lite Account and the Sys­tem of Envir­on­ment­al-Eco­nom­ic Accounting.
17. Stress the need for build­ing capa­city towards meas­ur­ing sus­tain­able tour­ism, tak­ing into account the con­straints and chal­lenges of imple­ment­ing stat­ist­ic­al sys­tems in devel­op­ing countries.
18. Call upon all act­ors to facil­it­ate the neces­sary means and resources for the devel­op­ment and sub­sequent in-coun­try imple­ment­a­tion of the Framework.
19. Recog­nize that with regard to data col­lec­tion all pos­sible sources should be taken into account, includ­ing census, sur­vey-based, admin­is­trat­ive and big data.
20. Encour­age that the Stat­ist­ic­al Frame­work for Meas­ur­ing Sus­tain­able Tour­ism be presen­ted to the United Nations Stat­ist­ic­al Com­mis­sion for its con­sid­er­a­tion in the UN Stat­ist­ic­al Commission’s fifty-first ses­sion, to be held in 2020.
21. Emphas­ize that, bey­ond being a tech­nic­al exer­cise, the devel­op­ment and imple­ment­a­tion of an MST Frame­work is a stra­tegic and ongo­ing endeav­our, requir­ing stake­hold­er engage­ment, inter-insti­tu­tion­al coordin­a­tion and polit­ic­al leadership.
22. Wel­come the estab­lish­ment by UNWTO of a spe­cial fund­ing mech­an­ism through vol­un­tary con­tri­bu­tions for the pur­pose of fur­ther devel­op­ment and imple­ment­a­tion of the Stat­ist­ic­al Frame­work for Meas­ur­ing Sus­tain­able Tourism.

Dur­ing this 6th Inter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence on Tour­ism Stat­ist­ics: Meas­ur­ing Sus­tain­able Tour­ism in Manila, Phil­ip­pines, we unite polit­ic­al com­mit­ment and gath­er tech­nic­al expert­ise to call for the devel­op­ment and imple­ment­a­tion of the Stat­ist­ic­al Frame­work for Meas­ur­ing Sus­tain­able Tour­ism that includes eco­nom­ic, envir­on­ment­al and social dimen­sions across rel­ev­ant spa­tial levels (glob­al, nation­al and sub­n­a­tion­al). We call upon oth­er gov­ern­ments and admin­is­tra­tions at nation­al and sub-nation­al levels, inter­na­tion­al organ­iz­a­tions, aca­demia, private sec­tor organ­iz­a­tions and civil soci­ety to join our efforts.

We extend our sin­cere grat­it­ude to our host, the Gov­ern­ment of the Phil­ip­pines, for its warm hos­pit­al­ity and excel­lent sup­port and arrange­ments for the organ­iz­a­tion of the Con­fer­ence, as well as its sig­ni­fic­ant con­tri­bu­tion to advan­cing the sus­tain­able tour­ism agenda as a driver for sus­tain­able development.

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The “Manila Call for Action on Meas­ur­ing Sus­tain­able Tour­ism” (PDF 318 KB).