Strategy for Selecting Sustainable Tourism Indicators for Tourism Destinations

I will focus on developing a comprehensive set of sustainable tourism indicators, examining the approaches utilized by different destinations worldwide at a scientific level of analysis.

The initial phase involves developing a set of indicators that have been recognized by experts in the field, encompassing the various characteristics of sustainable tourism. Implementation of a second phase allows the integration of these indicators with the sustainable tourism framework strategy of each respective region, ensuring their practical applicability while maintaining their relevance.

The application of a two-stage approach enables the identification of a set of sustainable tourism indicators that possess recognized validity, quantifiability, and alignment with tourism policies specifically tailored to each geographic region.

The Role of Monitoring and Evaluation Tools

Policy implementation involves the use of monitoring and evaluation tools. Indicators are recognized as fundamental communication instruments aimed at reporting changes and predicting consequences from latent situations.

Regarding sustainable tourism, their primary objective is to provide a comprehensive assessment of the relationship between nature and society, in order to assist decision-makers in evaluating actions that must be undertaken and ensuring a correct path toward sustainable development.

The development of a sustainability indicator framework, however, remains a challenging task, to the extent that introducing a degree of subjectivity is inevitable at each of its stages, from indicator selection to their interpretation.

These initiatives are divided between those that consider sustainability as a complex concept requiring the development of sophisticated measurement tools and those that view political consensus arising from stakeholder consultation as the objective.

In the first case, we obtain an indicator framework which, despite its relevance, will not be popular with decision-makers due to its complexity. In the second case, the resulting indicator framework will present substantial evaluation of dimensions considered important by stakeholders and thus will serve as a marketing tool.

Development Approaches for Sustainable Tourism Indicators

There are two approaches for developing Sustainable Tourism Indicators (STI) depending on the objectives for which they were created:

First, the scientific approach generally aims to acquire extensive information to be as accurate as possible. This often leads to frameworks that are scientifically valid but not very popular with decision-makers due to their complexity.

Second, the approach recommended by decision-makers and practitioners, according to which initially available data must, on one hand, be condensed in the form of synthetic indicators to support policy decisions and, on the other hand, be more simplified for public information.

The framework emerges from consensus among many factors, at the expense of seeking a neutral and reliable system that would lead to making specific decisions for strategic planning.

Recently, several authors have attempted to integrate these two approaches by examining their respective weaknesses and seeking the best possible compromise. The resulting work was conducted with the aim of demonstrating that indicator production, based on a purely scientific approach, tends to ignore or underestimate the importance of the political dimension.

This would explain why these indicators fail to gain persuasive validity among decision-makers and citizens. On the other hand, the approach based on seeking political consensus creates bias in indicator development and introduces an element of subjectivity that scientists denounce as an unscientific approach.

Indeed, the content and priorities prompted by the indicators will depend on the collaborations of the actors involved in the process. By choosing an alternative approach, indicator development becomes a knowledge production process, scientific at its core, developing an operational model that leads to their recognition.

Framework Challenges and Regional Specificity

Beyond the significance of differences between science and stakeholders, we note the absence of a truly established reference framework for indicator development. The result is the creation of overly specific indicators that ignore, wholly or partially, the fundamental principles of sustainable tourism.

Each region must have its own indicators in order to establish minimal coherence at the level of assessing local sustainable tourism development.

The fact remains that the use and development of such indicators faces various problems, particularly regarding data accessibility. Indeed, an indicator framework compatible with several destinations faces observation and measurement constraints.

For example, we must consider users' request for concise information, consider data availability, etc. Take the example of examining the poverty issue. It is usually measured using one or more indicators related to household income, expenses, and housing, as statistics related to it are easily accessible.

However, beyond the general measurement dimension, poverty is characterized by social and cultural dimensions (e.g., exclusion, education) for which there are several other equally relevant indicators whose measurements sometimes require calculations, research, or more adaptation.

Sustainable Tourism Policy Framework in Tourism Destinations

First of all, we must consider the characteristics of a tourism destination, such as kilometers of coastline, number of residents, which category it ranks as the most beautiful destination in the world, for sustainable development, international position among the best destinations globally, etc.

Additionally, we must note all data such as: natural landscapes, variety of cultural heritage, festivals, flora, fauna, etc.

To ensure the sustainability of the tourism sector and maintain a competitive level of attractiveness, each region must mobilize to adopt tourism policies that meet the principles of sustainable development.

These policies are developed based on a participatory approach involving a series of consultations between authorities, local population, and tourism stakeholders. The objective is to develop a consensual and realistic vision for tourism development and define common goals among stakeholders.

Guiding Principles and Objectives

Guiding Principle 1: Preservation and Promotion of Regional Culture

• Objective 1: Local production, local products (agri-food, agro-eco-sustainability), artistic productions

• Objective 2: History and cultural heritage of the region accessible to visitors

• Objective 3: Preservation of characteristics (e.g., for Rethymno) of history and identity in relation to the maritime element (sea)

• Objective 4: Relationship of tourism product with residents and how they perceive it

Guiding Principle 2: Conservation and Enhancement of Landscape Heritage

• Objective 1: Adoption at local level of measures for protecting and enhancing cultural and general heritage landscape

Guiding Principle 3: Promotion of Ecological Mindset

• Objective 1: Identification and implementation of measures aimed at creating the destination as more ecological

Guiding Principle 4: Participation in Governance and Endogenous Development

• Objective 1: Facilitating access to the community-destination itself and creating and encouraging event development

• Objective 2: Maximizing local benefit from tourism activity with sustainable criteria

• Objective 3: Collaboration in ensuring that the network of activities, events, attractions in tourism offerings focuses on consultation between various involved stakeholders

Guiding Principle 5: Sustainability of Tourism Activity

• Objective 1: Improving traveler (tourist) reception

• Objective 2: Optimal use of resources connected to the maritime, mountainous, and special character of each region

• Objective 3: Development and improvement of tourism flow throughout the year and increasing visitor stay duration

• Objective 4: Facilitating access

• Objective 5: Analysis of tourism supply

Strategic Implementation Framework

Sustainable development is at the center of a region's priorities and must be reflected in the implementation of numerous projects, particularly within an action plan framework that can be supported by higher public authorities.

For example, a tourism region adopted a tourism development framework policy after two years of consultation with all involved stakeholders. This consultation became necessary after strong fluctuations connected to increased tourism service supply. It was approved by all socioeconomic partners, and a monitoring committee was formed with a representative from each of these entities to oversee the implementation of the annual action plan on which the measurement policy (sustainable indicators) is based.

Comprehensive Development Goals

Tourism development must, through economic, social, and cultural factors, benefit the entire community and contribute to improving residents' quality of life. It cannot be considered developing traveler flow quality and their well-being at the destination without considering the residents themselves.

Community Benefit Objectives:

• Objective 1: Optimizing economic benefit from tourism with at least the majority of the population

• Objective 2: Developing tourism aimed at maintaining and improving residents' quality of life

Environmental Conservation Objectives:

Tourism development must contribute to preserving our natural environment's diversity.

• Objective 1: Strengthening regional management framework collaborations

• Objective 2: Ensuring that preservation of undeveloped natural spaces and access for all constitute collective heritage

• Objective 3: Overseeing installation and infrastructure development, equipment and activities, respecting natural heritage

• Objective 4: Implementing sustainable development strategies within tourism supply framework

Cultural Identity Preservation Objectives:

Tourism development must provide the opportunity to highlight preservation of identity, local lifestyle, and cultural elements.

• Objective 1: Preservation, enhancement, and promotion of culture and heritage with proper professional targeting

• Objective 2: Promoting social and cultural impacts from tourism activity and benefits arising for residents from this activity

• Objective 3: Promoting relationships between visitors, vacationers, and residents

• Objective 4: Encouraging development of authentic and quality products, attractions, activities, and events

Economic Integration Objectives:

Tourism development must complement other economic activities, particularly those connected to marine and terrestrial resource exploitation generally.

• Objective 1: Considering interaction between fishing and tourism while promoting the fishing sector

• Objective 2: Supporting agricultural development activity initiatives

• Objective 3: Promoting local products as important elements of tourism products along with local gastronomy

• Objective 4: Increasing awareness among interested tourism stakeholders about the importance of quality hospitality, products, and services offered to visitors

Strategic Selection of Sustainable Tourism Indicators

The first choice for tourism regions is to invite external experts-consultants for two main reasons:

a) To avoid lack of consensus from conflicts of interest that would lead to complete inaction gaps between stakeholders

b) To make selections from recognized indicators whose relevance and use have been proven by experts in other destinations

Generally, the indicators in question are selected from a specific manual of a specific organization whose tourism is the basic operational axis, where 768 indicators are initially identified. Several of these have been removed for redundancy reasons. The resulting database consists of 507 indicators.

Categories and Areas of Interest for Sustainable Tourism Development

• Natural spaces, fauna and flora

• Water resources

• Atmosphere

• Energy

• Landscapes and disturbances

• Resilience and risk

• Protection and security

• Health

• Resident and traveler satisfaction

• Public participation

• Culture

• Accessibility

• Investments

• Ecotourism promotion

• Economic viability

• Employment

• Marketing

• Distinction

• Reputation

Specific Selection Criteria

A second series of three specific criteria makes it possible to adapt the reduced indicator list to the corresponding frameworks of a tourism destination. Therefore, specific criteria are added to the four previous general criteria and aim to ensure:

i) Data availability: Used to check whether data is available for tourism regions

ii) Indicator relevance to the system

iii) Validation by competent authorities, stakeholders, and tourism region professionals

Implementation Results and Comparative Analysis

The application of the seven criteria mentioned in the catalog created a concise list of 20 indicators. The first four criteria were used to reduce the list of 507 indicators to core indicators, to an optimal number that allows systematic coverage of the main dimensions of sustainable development.

Relevance and Core Indicators (Examples)

Indicators Meeting General Criteria	Indicators Available for Typical Inland Tourism Region	Indicators Available for Island Tourism Region
Protected area surface	Controlled operational zone area	Wetland and marine zone area
Water consumption (tourism sector)	Number of municipalities managing wastewater	Number of wastewater treatment plants complying with specific legislative requirements and sustainability targets
Atmospheric pollution (tourism sector)	Public transport network coverage (Road Sector)	Public transport network coverage (Maritime Sector)
Energy consumption (tourism sector)	Number of planned actions or commitments completed	Number of planned actions or commitments completed
Volume of recycled materials	Recovery percentage from recycling	Recovery percentage from recycling
Local population satisfaction degree with tourism development	Local population satisfaction degree with tourism development	Local population satisfaction degree with tourism development
Environmental vulnerability	Investment for tourism supply development	Investment for tourism supply development
Ratio between tourists and local population during cultural events	Number of visitors to museums and similar institutions	Number of visitors to museums and similar institutions
Water area quality (lakes, rivers, seas)	Number of accessible inland spaces	Number of accessible public beaches
Tourist satisfaction degree	General service satisfaction index by tourists (statistics)	General service satisfaction index by tourists (statistics)

Key Findings and Data Constraints

First, data availability constraints often require using proxy indicators that substitute and approximate reality as objectively as possible. This observation makes it possible to highlight statistical data available regarding sustainable tourism and target indicators for which regions separately should provide more information.

Second, indicators do not differ significantly from region to region. It can be concluded that the adopted strategy made it possible to minimize the use of overly specific indicators and thus reduce the risk of erroneous measurement.

Conclusion

In a previous article, I emphasized that everything must be measured and compared. If there are no measurable elements, no kind of policy or strategy is determined.

This article today presented the strategy adopted by tourism regions for selecting a series of sustainable tourism indicators capable of supporting policy and operational decisions.

The development of tourism policy guidelines encourages active participation from all stakeholders. On the other hand, developing indicators that allow monitoring and evaluation of the objectives of this sustainable tourism development initiative are better assigned to external expert-consultants to select relevant recognized indicators, adequately guarantee coverage of sustainable tourism dimensions, and customize the measurement system and tourism management guidelines to a specific region.

The strategy adopted by certain tourism regions reflects the prudent integration of scientific expertise and local experience. It demonstrates that a participatory approach can be enhanced by external contribution from tourism specialist consultants, particularly aiming to ensure the validity and reliability of indicators used to evaluate goal achievement.

Furthermore, such a strategy could be applied to tourism destinations worldwide, thanks to its flexibility.

Strategic Implementation Recommendations

1. Stakeholder Engagement: Ensure comprehensive consultation processes involving all tourism ecosystem participants

2. Scientific Rigor: Balance academic precision with practical applicability for decision-makers

3. Data Accessibility: Prioritize indicators with reliable, accessible data sources

4. Regional Customization: Adapt universal frameworks to local geographic, cultural, and economic contexts

5. Continuous Monitoring: Establish systematic review mechanisms for indicator effectiveness and relevance

6. Capacity Building: Invest in local expertise development while leveraging external specialist knowledge

This thorough method makes sure that sustainable tourism development projects are based on facts, backed by those involved, and good for the environment, providing long-term benefits for both the places and their communities.