The pandemic and other recent crises have been an opportunity to rethink the tourism system, and move toward fairer, more sustainable and resilient models of tourism development. This requires policies that address structural weaknesses and address the tourism management and unbalanced development issues that continue to impede the sector and prevent the jobs, well-being and other benefits from tourism flowing to local communities. Policy interventions will also be necessary to advance the digital and low-carbon transitions. Governments need to consider these issues as they design and put in place comprehensive tourism recovery strategies and action plans.
Tourism
Tourism is an important driver of economic prosperity, jobs, income and wellbeing in OECD countries and beyond. Awareness of the sector’s role as an economic and social force has been elevated at the highest levels, following the near complete shutdown of tourism during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, rapid and unbalanced tourism development also brings challenges for people, places and businesses. We analyse policies and structural changes impacting the development of tourism and provide policy makers with policy solutions, data, expertise and good practices to set tourism on a path to a more resilient, sustainable and inclusive future.
Key links
Key messages
Improving the evidence base to inform tourism policy and business decisions is a key policy priority. Effective policy making, planning and management all rely on the availability of robust evidence, preferably in the form of reliable and timely data that is sufficiently disaggregated and comparable across destinations and territorial levels. More progress is also needed to better measure the economic, environmental and social dimensions of tourism, and develop timely and robust indicators and tools to monitor the effectiveness of tourism policies and the resilience and sustainability of tourism development.
Context
Tourism is a driver of economic prosperity and well-being
The direct economic impact of the tourism sector is far-reaching and has knock-on consequences for the wider economy. Before the pandemic, the tourism sector directly contributed 4.4% of GDP and 6.9% of employment, and tourism generated 20.5% of service-related exports in OECD countries, on average. The unprecedented shock from COVID-19 saw the average direct contribution of tourism to GDP fall to 2.8% in 2020 across OECD countries with data available. This equates to an average decline of 1.9 percentage points compared to pre-COVID-19.
Global Forum on Tourism Statistics, Knowledge and Policies
The Global Forum on Tourism Statistics, Knowledge and Policies provides a unique platform for the regular exchange ideas, views and experiences to address issues high on the global tourism agenda. It brings together policy-makers, statisticians and leaders from the private sector and civil society to discuss relevant and emerging tourism policy issues, and their overarching implications for policy implementation and the supporting data infrastructure, in collaboration with the private sector, researchers and academics from OECD member and non-member countries, and other international organisations.
- Supporting the development of economic intelligence, comparable statistics, and indicators on the global tourism economy, markets, and destinations.
- Promoting an evidence-based and integrated policy approach to support a stronger, more inclusive, and sustainable tourism economy, and engaging with the private sector.
- Enhancing effective horizontal and multi-level governance in tourism, and co-operating with all levels of government.
- Supporting good policy, data and business practices in Member and Partner countries, and promoting a forward-looking vision for tourism
Tourism Committee
Since 1948, the OECD Tourism Committee analyses and monitors policies and structural changes affecting the development of domestic and international tourism.
The Committee provides policy-makers with concrete analysis of key challenges and policy responses that will shape tourism in the years to come. The Committee actively promotes an integrated, whole-of-government approach linking tourism to policies such as economy, investment, transport, trade, inclusive growth, employment, innovation, green growth, local development, SMEs and entrepreneurship. The Committee also supports work on tourism policy performance and evaluation through its tourism policy reviews.
The Committee is expanding its global reach by co-operating closely with Partner countries and by deepening its engagement with the private sector. The aim is to more effectively share knowledge and good practices and contribute to shape global debates on tourism. The Committee has a strategic partnership with the European Commission, and has a long-standing history of co-operation with other organisations such as the World Tourism Organization, the United Nations Environment Programme, the International Labour Office and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Examples of projects which have benefited from international co-operation include the Tourism Satellite Account, the travel and visa facilitation agenda, the 10YFP Sustainable Tourism Programme and the work on supporting quality jobs in tourism.