Regional Workshop on Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism in Asia and the Pacific

While tourism is a priority sector in Asia and the Pacific for its revenue- and job-generating potential, countries and communities are often left to deal with the adverse impact of unbalanced tourism, economic overdependence, and environmental pressures. To appropriately balance tourism-related policies in the economic, social, and environmental spheres, there is a need for a comprehensive analysis of data in these broad but interlinked domains. 

The Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism (SF-MST) provides an integrated approach to assess tourism’s economic, environmental, and social dimensions. It provides a coherent structure for organizing data using common concepts, definitions, classifications, and reporting rules. The broad coverage of statistical topics in this framework facilitates discussion of tourism impacts and supports policymaking, including at local and destination level. It provides a consistent and comparable framing for the variety of measures relevant to comprehensively assess the sustainability of tourism. The SF-MST was endorsed by the United Nations Statistics Commission in 2024, at which time Member States also noted the need for capacity building to support its implementation.