Business advisory group EarthCheck has launched the Global Sustainable Tourism Dashboard, a new online database for sustainable tourism metrics. The project has been supported by leading research institutions Griffith and Surrey Universities together with Amadeus and World Travel and Tourism Council(WTTC) to monitor and inform collective progress towards sustainable tourism development.
The Dashboard reports on seven sustainability themes:
- Poverty Alleviation
- Equality of Travel
- Carbon Emissions
- Sustainable Production
- Protected Areas
- Gender Equity
- Security
“The Global Sustainable Tourism Dashboard was inspired by the need for sustainability indicators to be measured and tracked in a consistent and transparent manner so areas for improvement can be identified and achievements celebrated,” said Earthcheck CEO Stewart Moore. “EarthCheck is willing to openly share our data with thought leaders such as Griffith and Surrey University and is delighted to support and contribute to the Dashboard.
Mr Moore said the success of COP 21 and the Paris Agreement was increasing measurement, reporting and disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions across the tourism distribution and supply chain.
“Our clients operate across some 70 countries in more than 30 tourism sectors – their commitment to using EarthCheck certification, benchmarking and tourism consulting reflect the value now being placed on sustainability by a large majority of the tourism industry,” he said, adding that regular updating of the Global Sustainable Tourism Dashboard would play a leading role in demonstrating in a more robust and defensible fashion how the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the 17 Sustainability Development goals set by the United Nations can be achieved more effectively.
Earthcheck, through the not-for-profit EartchCheck Research Institute, now has the world’s deepest data set of evidence based performance metrics on hotels and tourism infrastructure across the globe. The data that EarthCheck has provided to the Dashboard is based on metrics that have been consistently collected over a 17-year period with a common methodology and third party audits.
