Contents. Sustainable Tourism Development. Indicators and their Use in Policy-Making European Perspective. Ghislain Dubois UNWTO Consultant

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1 Sustainable Tourism Development Indicators and their Use in Policy-Making European Perspective Ghislain Dubois UNWTO Consultant Technical Seminar on Policies, Strategies and Tools for Sustainable Tourism Development Almaty, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, 26, April 2006 Ghislain Dubois, Tourism Environment Consultants (TEC), April 2006 TEC 38 rue Sénac de Meilhan Marseille France (0) Ghislain.Dubois@tec-conseil.com Contents Introduction European specificities Indicators case studies regional level national level destination level other level and stakeholders Lessons learned

2 European specificities European specificities Tourism is often complex and ancient (domestic and international tourism, diversity of tourism supply ) Diversity of institutional context for NTAs, diversity of priority given to tourism Different sustainability issues : rural tourism and landscape sensitivity, transport, climate change and congestion Tourism statistics are well developed (TSA ) BUT not always towards sustainability issues and information needs The context of EU integration enhance the need of harmonized statistics at the EU 25+ level (EUROSTAT) Indicators must take into account these specificities

3 An opportunity to mainstream EU tourism statistics systems towards sustainability issues? How to translate this diversity of tourism places and people into figures, indicators and reports?

4 Case studies Indicators and their use Improving the cooperation at regional level, defining a common ground of understanding : Baltic Sea, Mediterranean, EU Increasing the awareness of tourism sustainability issues : France, Spain Planning and monitoring of the plans : Calvia, Rimini Monitoring the performance of management : ACCOR group

5 Case studies : regional level Indicators as a tool to implement the Baltic 21 process Indicators designed to be suitable for regional and local tourism planning A focus on data availability and technical feasibility of indicators Indicators can help reaching a common understanding of issues, among different countries of different cultures Baltic Sea Agenda 21

6 Baltic Sea Agenda 21 tourism indicators The Mediterranean Action Plan Increasing the awareness of common concerns, developing cooperation Assessing the implementation of the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development (MSSD) Key indicators for the MSSD : international tourism receipts, non coastal bedplaces Tourism density in coastal areas Source: Plan Bleu / Blue Plan, 1990

7 The Mediterranean Action Plan Share of tourism in hotels in the national water demand Source : TEC, d après Eurostat 1998 Share of tourism in the country water demand Share of coastal tourism in the country water demand % Espagne 0,8 0,6 France 0,5 0,1 Italie 0,5 0,4 Malte 4,2 4,2 Grèce 1,1 1 Turquie 0,2 0,1 Chypre* 5,4 5,4 Syrie 0,1 0,1 Israël 0,5 0,3 Tunisie 2 1,9 European Environment Agency Indicators to assess trends and policies at the EU Level Strong methodology : Policy question Policy issues Indicator tittle Fact sheet and indicator sheet Ambitious indicators, to orient future policies and statistics

8 Case studies : national level France : environmental diagnosis at national level Tourisme, Environnement, Territoires : les indicateurs, Institut Français de l Environnement, 2000 Tourism, Environment, Territories : Indicators, French Institute for the Environment, 2000 Le tourisme durable dans les destinations : guide d évaluation Sustainable tourism in destinations : evaluation guide

9 France A national evaluation of French tourism based upon indicators, undertaken for the French Institute of the Environment (Ifen) Contribute to the integration of the environment in sectorrelated policies (be it agriculture, industry, transport, tourism) To evaluate the importance of well known issues (water consumption of tourism) and to point out emerging issues (tourism and climate change, biodiversity and tourism ) A 3 year program A 3 persons research team Ifen could afford data processing, statistics, cartography: indicators can take time and money Methodology Selection of indicators, collection of data Data processing, calculation of indicators Writing a diagnosis Effort in communication (press release, maps ) No downscaling of indicators at the destination level France Tourism pressure on natural habitats Tourism density Inventory of natural heritage Source: direction du tourisme- Insee, 1999, Insee, RP, 1999 Source : Museum national d histoire naturelle

10 France Tourism pressure on natural habitats Potentiel tourism pressure on natural areas Grenoble Le Puy-en-Velay Valence Densité touristique potentielle dans les ZNIEFF II Privas Gap Nombre de lits touristiquess dans et à proximité des ZNIEFF par hectare Digne-les-Bains Nimes Avignon Nice Montpellier 100 km Marseille Toulon Source: direction du tourisme- Insee, 1999, Insee, RP, 1999, Museum national d histoire naturelle The lower the occupancy rate, the higher the space consumption Accomodation type Secondary homes Hotels Campsites Tourism residence Self catering accomodation Rentals France Occupation rate (number of weeks a year) in summer Sources direction du Tourisme / Sofrès (enquête SDT 1998), direction du Tourisme (enquête aux frontières 1996), Insee (RP 99) direction du Tourisme (enquête sur la fréquentation de l'hotellerie 1998) direction du Tourisme (enquête sur la fréquentation de l'hotellerie de plein air 1998) Ifen d'après Syndicat national des résidences de tourisme (1999) Fédération nationale des gîtes de France (1999) 10 to 15 Détente Consultants (1998) Source: Ifen d après Insee (Inventaire Communal 1998)

11 Spain: Spanish System of Environmental Tourism Indicators Multi-level (national, regional, local), in response to the high decentralisation of Spanish tourism authorities Strong selection procedure of indicators : the need of a selection filter (impact dimension, irreversibiliy, tourism responsibility, technical feasibility) Transparency on methods and limitation in the interpretation of indicators Low graphic quality of published document (problem of communication) Spain Tourism pressure on natural areas of special interest Autonomous communities Source: Ministerio de Medio Ambiente, 2003

12 Case studies : destination level Calvia, Balearics, Spain A policy document : Calvia local Agenda 21, with 40 actions An associated Calvia Sustainable Tourism Observatory A regular reporting on the implementation of actions and their impacts, to keep a high mobilization on the Agenda 21 A system of notation with a synthetic index to reach an annual overall evaluation A very good communication

13 Calvia, Spain Calvia, Spain

14 Visit initiative ( ) A core set of indicators tested in 10 destinations Indicators developed in the perspective of an ecolabelling of destinations (greentravel market ) Visit initiative No. Description of Indicator How to measure, further explanations B2-1 Maximum population density (peak season) per km² Table of number of total population (incl. tourists) per month B2-2 Beds in secondary residences (in % of total lodging capacity) B2-3 Ratio of built-up area to natural areas B2-4 Size of protected natural areas (in % of total destination area) B2-5 Evolution of different leisure time activities with intensive use of resources Lodging capacity (by means of accommodation) Types of area of destination (built-up area, area reserved for building, green land, forest, water, other) in km² Total size of protected natural areas (any kind of degree of protection) in km² Evolution of different leisure time activities with intensive use of resources: Total size of golf course(s) (in km²) Number of guests at golf course(s) per year Example of indicators : «Carrying capacity» issues B2-6 Percentage of natural coastline (if applicable) Number of snow canons Area covered with artificial snow Capacity of lifts, cable cars and similar transport facilities (in persons-vertical meters/year) Number of tourists transported with helicopters Capacity of harbours and marinas (number of motor boats) Number of hydro speeds or similar water sports equipment Percentage of length of natural coast line (not built-up within a zone of 1 km from the water) on total coastline

15 Indicators developed in the framework of a Carrying capacity assessment Stress tolerance of the destination : Initial assessment with basic indicators Elaboration of planning scenarios for Conservative 2. Rural tourism development 3. Tourism pressure reduction in the coast 4. Re-qualification of Tourism offer 5. Accommodation capacity growth in the coast Assessment of scenarios through sustainable tourism indicators Elaboration of a final scenario Riviera di Rimini 2010 Rimini, Italy Rimini, Italy Assessing scenarios

16 Case studies : others stakeholders Accor group sustainability reporting A sustainability policy initiated in 1997 The environmental charter as a common tool for hotels of the group Initiatives on Ecoconception of buildings, supply chains, human resources, environmental impact assessment : slow but gradual development of the environmental policy Some basic indicators to : - Assess the environmental impacts of the Group - Monitor individual performance, as a preliminary step to action (many hoteliers do not even monitor their water and energy consumption)

17 Accor group Lessons learned

18 Indicators : criticisms, pragmatism, achievement To conclude There are a lot of risks and illusions in the indicators : Planning Utopia : everything can t be checked and controlled through indicators The illusion of indexes that could summarise the main issues The illusion of perfect information systems for all fields of activity However : indicators are useful to point out the lack of critical data for the assessment of the tourism sector, to improve information system The aim isn t to reuse old data, but to produce new ones, especially on key issues (buildings on the coast line, biodiversity ) Indicators can play a central role in the evaluation and planning process Indicators : criticisms, pragmatism, achievement Indicators are usefull If they are commented and evaluated If they are calculated If one checks the availability of data first Besides «core sets» of sustainability issues, destinations need methods to develop their own indicators If we are ambitious in objectives but pragmatic with the data Not by themselves, but as part of a planning process, an evaluation : define objectives first The European experience clearly demonstrates the benefits from the systematic use of sustainable tourism indicators

19 Indicators of Sustainable Development for Tourism Destinations Ambitious : a method to develop indicators for all kind of destinations around the world Long (500 pages), but worth reading and using!