Thursday, 28th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

How to achieve SDGs for resilient tourism, by UN

By Maria Diamond
16 July 2022   |   3:43 am
As countries build back better and aim to build more sustainable and resilient tourism, the United Nations (UN) global assessment has clarified the important role that tourism must play in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in order to contribute to more evidence-based policymaking in the sector.

As countries build back better and aim to build more sustainable and resilient tourism, the United Nations (UN) global assessment has clarified the important role that tourism must play in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in order to contribute to more evidence-based policymaking in the sector.
  
The UN reports draw on UNWTO’s statistical work to track tourism’s role in delivering meaningful progress for people and the planet. This extended report is aimed at the wider public and provides an overview of all 17 SDGs with infographics, including those illustrating the relevance of tourism.
  
The report was launched at the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development; with this year’s theme tagged ‘Building Back Better’ from the pandemic.
  


Prepared in collaboration with the entire UN Statistical System, the reports and their latest available data show that action is needed to accelerate the delivery of the SDGs and to step up national measurement efforts, including for the tourism sector.
  
As demonstrated in section on SDG8 ‘Decent Work and Economic Growth’, tourism, a major force of development, was one of the most affected economic sectors by the COVID-19 pandemic as global GDP from tourism nearly halved between 2019 and 2020, with wide-reaching consequences for jobs, local businesses and conservation efforts.
  
On SDG12 Responsible Production and Consumption, UNWTO’s statistics serve to highlight the importance of national efforts to implement standardised tools like Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSAs) and the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA). Both underpin the UNWTO-led statistical framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism (MST) that assesses the social, economic and environmental impacts and dependencies of tourism at national and sub-national levels. These tools also underline the importance of multi-stakeholder collaboration, which is fostered through the sustainable tourism programme of the One Planet network.
  
Other examples of the tools which guide efforts in the sector at the international and regional level are the UNWTO recommendations for the Transition to a Green Travel and Tourism Economy and the AlUla Framework for Inclusive Community Development Through Tourism, both welcomed and endorsed by the G20, the European Parliament resolution on establishing a strategy for sustainable tourism, the Pacific Sustainable Tourism Policy Framework, UNWTO General Assembly resolutions and UN Statistical Commission decisions.

0 Comments