UN Tourism and the World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) have launched a report highlighting the need to measure the social and environmental impact of tourism on urban destinations.

The report assesses the current situation and challenges of the collection of tourism data at a city level. The analysis will help to create a global database of urban tourism, enabling better understanding and benchmarking of the sector’s size and value, both globally and regionally.

More and better data needed

The new report provides an overview of the current situation of tourism data collection and reporting in 22 destinations in Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. The study will, amongst others:

• Identifiy existing indicators and relevant data, highlighting the efforts taken to pave the way to creation of a global urban tourism database.
• Address the importance of measuring impacts beyond the economic factors and adding the socio-cultural and environmental dimensions of city tourism.
• Provide an overview of the potential use of big data for measuring urban tourism, including the main challenges, with a view to enhancing key elements of a smart destination including technology and governance.

The report was launched during the 2024 edition of the leading global travel and tourism trade fair, ITB Berlin.

Focus on sustainability

UN Tourism, with the support of the United Nations Statistics Division, the International Labour Organization and other parties, is leading the development of a Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism. This will develop a common approach to building harmonised data at the national and subnational level to support the analysis of tourism activity and its sustainability at all scales.

To date, the UN Tourism International Network of Sustainable Tourism Observatories has played a crucial role in helping destinations in its endeavours towards monitoring and evaluating the economic, environmental and social impacts of tourism, fostering sustainable tourism practices locally and globally.