In the coming month, UNWTO will introduce the Measurement of Sustainable Tourism (MST) index as one of its holistic measures of tourism at International Conference on Statistics which will take place in Philippines, as declared by the secretary general Taleb Rifai.
Rifai confirmed while talking to the UNWTO/PATA Ministerial Debate at PATA Annual Summit at Negombo, Sri Lanka last weekend that the MST is soon to initiate a holistic approach at tourism impacts and benefits to a country’s socio-economic safety as a substitute of relying on arrivals alone. To quote him, ‘for years we have been relying on arrivals as (a measurement) but we need to examine the impacts in terms of the economy, jobs, society and communities.
We need to move into a truly green economy. Growth and sustainability must go hand in hand,” he added. “We have to fight climate change; five per cent of carbon emissions comes from travel and of this two per cent is from transport.’
More and more new places are now moving away from the ‘numbers game’. They are instead more target-oriented on courting high-spending visitors who bring in higher revenue and smaller carbon footprint, panelists at the session revealed., CEO of Nepal Tourism Board, Mr. Deepak Raj Joshi said that Nepal has prohibited travel to specific sites as a result of over-visitation. Mirza Mohamed Taiyab, director general of Tourism Malaysia, confirmed that the Malaysian government has recognized ecotourism as a way to influence the rich natural assets of a country and profit local communities at the same time.
