Work

The Local Turn in Tourism Statistics Within the Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism 2024

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Contemporary challenges in destination management, particularly those related to sustainability, tourism behavior, and mobility, require granular, local-scale data to inform public and private sector decisions. However, the traditional international tourism statistics standards, such as IRTS 2008 and TSA:RMF 2008, have focused on national and, to a lesser extent, regional scales, overlooking local destinations as a relevant level for the measurement and analysis of tourism. As a result, no common conceptual framework has been available for producing statistical information for local destinations, despite tourism impacts being primarily felt at this level. The endorsement by the United Nations in 2024 of the new Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism (SF-MST 2024) has addressed this gap, marking a crucial shift toward recognizing local tourism destinations within sustainability measurement. In this conceptual paper, the recent local turn within this new international statistical standard is explored. Furthermore, by comparing SF-MST 2024 with previous documents, an extended conceptual framework for tourism statistics is developed, including the spatial dimension. Finally, in this paper, the implications for the implementation of the framework in local tourism destinations are discussed.

Source: Sustainability

DOI: 10.3390/su17041430

Authors: Raúl Hernández-Martín, Noemi Padrón-Fumero, Hugo Padrón-Ávila

Institutions: Universidad de La Laguna, Universidad Europea de Canarias

Language: English

Topic: Diverse Aspects of Tourism Research

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,896

Funder: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación