Support to Slovenia’s tourism ecosystem: towards a more sustainable, resilient and digital tourism

The European Commission supported this flagship technical support project targeted at EU Member States wishing to build a more sustainable, resilient and digital tourism ecosystem. The flagship seeks to promote the digital and green transitions, strengthen regional cohesion and support the post COVID-19 recovery of tourism in Europe to make it fit for the future challenges in the global market. The flagship offers activity packages to enable Member States to engage in effective reforms in the area of the tourism ecosystem.

Context 

Slovenia prepares the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) every three years, following the three-year frequency of basic tourism surveys. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted limitations in the reliability of the estimates from tourism surveys in the event of shocks and unpredictable events and the need for more real-time input data. Exploration of new data sources to supplement, or eventually substitute survey data is required. There is also a need to ensure that tourism recovers sustainably and that the sustainability of the sector is monitored over time, which requires the development of a system of relevant sustainability indicators. Finally, more information is required to understand which activities can and should be digitalised by the SMEs of the tourism sector and how to best monitor digitalisation.

Support delivered

• Reviewing alternative data sources that could be used for the compilation of TSA; 
• Supporting and organising a technical workshop on the use of alternative data sources to prepare tourism statistics; 
• Analysing the implementation of indicators for measuring and monitoring the sustainability of tourism; 
• Organising a technical workshop to support addressing key challenges and gaps related to the compilation of a core set of sustainability indicators; 
• Supporting a multi-country workshop on data sharing and integration; 
• Guidance on the development of a tool to publish tourism data in (near) real time; 
• Reviewing the current situation for technology use and identify possible indicators for digitalisation in tourism; 
• Short paper focused on measuring digitalisation in tourism.

Results achieved  

The main results of this support project will be: 

• upgraded tourism statistics to include sustainability and digitalisation;
• available up-to-date tourism data for citizens, entrepreneurs and policy makers.