The Local Turn in Tourism Statistics Within the Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism 2024

Raúl Hernández-Martín (), Noemi Padrón-Fumero and Hugo Padrón-Ávila
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Raúl Hernández-Martín: Department of Applied Economics and Quantitative Methods, University of La Laguna, 38200 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Spain
Noemi Padrón-Fumero: Department of Applied Economics and Quantitative Methods, University of La Laguna, 38200 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Spain
Hugo Padrón-Ávila: Departamento de Dirección de Empresas, Universidad Europea de Canarias, 38300 Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 4, 1-22

Abstract: Contemporary challenges in destination management, particularly those related to sustainability, tourism behavior, and mobility, require granular, local-scale data to inform public and private sector decisions. However, the traditional international tourism statistics standards, such as IRTS 2008 and TSA:RMF 2008, have focused on national and, to a lesser extent, regional scales, overlooking local destinations as a relevant level for the measurement and analysis of tourism. As a result, no common conceptual framework has been available for producing statistical information for local destinations, despite tourism impacts being primarily felt at this level. The endorsement by the United Nations in 2024 of the new Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism (SF-MST 2024) has addressed this gap, marking a crucial shift toward recognizing local tourism destinations within sustainability measurement. In this conceptual paper, the recent local turn within this new international statistical standard is explored. Furthermore, by comparing SF-MST 2024 with previous documents, an extended conceptual framework for tourism statistics is developed, including the spatial dimension. Finally, in this paper, the implications for the implementation of the framework in local tourism destinations are discussed.

Keywords: tourism data; local tourism destinations; statistical framework; sustainability; overtourism; spatial scale (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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