- Funding Programme
- Year
- 2022
Tailored sustainable tourism indicators at regional level in Spain
The Commission supported four Spanish regions – Andalusia, Catalonia, Navarra, and the Region of Valencia – to develop and pilot a system of indicators to measure and monitor the sustainability of tourism. This project is funded by the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument and implemented by the OECD, in co-operation with the European Commission.
Context
Tourism is one of the cornerstones of Spain’s economy, and an important driver of regional development. However, monitoring tourism policies and measuring the sustainability of tourism are major challenges for regions in Spain. Regional governments lack the tools, frameworks, and capacity to measure the economic, social and environmental impact of tourism activities, and to monitor the effectiveness of policy interventions to manage tourism development sustainably. The technical support project was undertaken to support countries’ efforts to implement reforms in response to the Covid pandemic, to build a more sustainable, resilient and digital tourism ecosystem in Europe.
Support delivered
Building on a roundtable in October 2022 in Marbella as well as four virtual fact-finding meetings in November 2022, the OECD developed a draft set of indicators to measure and monitor the sustainability of tourism in the four participating regions. The draft set of indicators was refined through three in-person workshops with regions and invited peer-country experts (December 2022 to February 2023). The OECD developed a compilation guide and tool to support the pilot testing. Informed by piloting progress and evaluation meetings between November 2023 and April 2024 paired with a written piloting evaluation, the OECD finalised the compilation guide.
Results achieved
The OECD, in co-operation with DG REFORM and the regions, developed a set of indicators to measure and monitor the sustainability of tourism in four Spanish regions and summarised compilation guidance in the final report. Workshops were held to build capacity on indicator compilation and facilitated close collaboration between the regions and with other peer countries. Through the piloting phase, the OECD supported the four regions to refine methodologies and establish baseline data for the indicators. Focused on key policy issues for the regions, the indicators help monitor progress towards sustainable tourism development.