Endorsed at the 56th session of the UN Statistical Commission, this landmark decision means that—for the first time—global data on tourism employment will be systematically monitored within the SDG monitoring process. It also increases the number of official tourism SDG indicators from two to three, raising recognition of the sector’s global contribution to economic and social progress.
What gets measured, gets done. As part of Goal 8, we strive for sustainable tourism that creates jobs. The new tourism employment indicator goes beyond GDP to enhance our understanding of tourism’s potential for social progress. Policymakers will be better equipped to identify gaps, address inequalities, and maximize tourism’s social and economic benefits—ensuring no one is left behind. UN Tourism Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili
UN Tourism’s most recent survey of Member States’ priorities revealed a strong preference for the Organization to work towards ensuring tourism contributes to the achievement of the SDGs. The new indicator, with UN Tourism as its custodian, delivers the evidence to advance on this priority.
Strengthening tourism’s role in global development
The indicator responds to a critical policy issue in many countries. Together with the existing SDG indicator on tourism’s GDP, the new indicator offers a broader perspective on tourism’s sustainability that better considers social progress.
With this recognition, tourism employment will now be officially integrated into the deliberations of the United Nations High-Level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals Report. The data will be available on the SDG Global Database, as well as on the UN Tourism Statistics Database website.
The indicator was jointly advanced under the leadership of Austria, Spain, Saudi Arabia, CARICOM, ILO and UN Tourism. It is fruit of extensive research and development through consultative and intergovernmental processes over several years. The inclusion of the tourism employment indicator is one of three new indicators endorsed by the UN Statistical Commission as part the second, and last, SDG Indicator Framework review within the 2030 Agenda’s time horizon.
Thanks to a partnership between UN Tourism and ILO, the new indicator leverages on both organization’s data reporting mechanisms, maximizing prior statistical investments at national and international levels, while minimizing reporting burden on countries.
Tourism represents 5,6% of total number of persons employed
Between 2015 and 2023, tourism accounted for 5.6% of global employment. In 2023 alone, 127 million persons were employed in tourism worldwide, based on data reported by 89 countries and comprising 68% of the world population.
Tourism offers employment and income opportunities in developed and developing countries alike, even in remote areas. Tourism plays a particularly crucial role in employment in the ‘Small Island Developing States’ (SIDS), where on average it accounted for 12.9% of the total number of employed persons.
The new indicator, derived from the Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism, tracks all persons of working age with paid employment and self-employment. It can be expressed as a share of total employed persons and can be disaggregated by male/female, employee/self-employed, and by the 10 tourism industries. This enables a comprehensive measurement of the number of persons employed in the tourism sector in each country, as well worldwide.
About the UN Statistical Commission
The UN Statistical Commission is the highest body of the global statistical system, bringing together heads of National Statistical Institutes from UN member states as well as international organizations. It sets statistical standards and develops concepts and methods, including their implementation at the national and international level.
Relevant links:
About UN Tourism
The World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism) is the United Nations agency responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism.
As the leading international organization in the field of tourism, UN Tourism promotes tourism as a driver of economic growth, inclusive development and environmental sustainability and offers leadership and support to the sector in advancing knowledge and tourism policies worldwide.
Our Priorities
Mainstreaming tourism in the global agenda: Advocating the value of tourism as a driver of socio-economic growth and development, its inclusion as a priority in national and international policies and the need to create a level playing field for the sector to develop and prosper.
Promoting sustainable tourism development: Supporting sustainable tourism policies and practices: policies which make optimal use of environmental resources, respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities and provide socio-economic benefits for all.
Fostering knowledge, education and capacity building: Supporting countries to assess and address their needs in education and training, as well as providing networks for knowledge creation and exchange.
Improving tourism competitiveness: Improving UN Tourism Members’ competitiveness through knowledge creation and exchange, human resources development and the promotion of excellence in areas such as policy planning, statistics and market trends, sustainable tourism development, marketing and promotion, product development and risk and crisis management.
Advancing tourism’s contribution to poverty reduction and development: Maximizing the contribution of tourism to poverty reduction and achieving the SDGs by making tourism work as a tool for development and promoting the inclusion of tourism in the development agenda.
Building partnerships: Engaging with the private sector, regional and local tourism organizations, academia and research institutions, civil society and the UN system to build a more sustainable, responsible and competitive tourism sector.
Our Structure
Members: An intergovernmental organization, UN Tourism has 160 Member States, 6 Associate Members, 2 Observers and over 500 Affiliate Members.
Organs: The General Assembly is the supreme organ of the Organization. The Executive Council take all measures, in consultation with the Secretary-General, for the implementation of the decisions and recommendations of the General Assembly and reports to the Assembly.
Secretariat: UN Tourism headquarters are based in Madrid, Spain. The Secretariat is led by the Secretary-General and organized into departments covering issues such as sustainability, education, tourism trends and marketing, sustainable development, statistics and the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), destination management, ethics and risk and crisis management. The Technical Cooperation and Silk Road Department carries out development projects in over 100 countries worldwide, while the Regional Departments for Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and the Middle East serve as the link between UN Tourism and its 160 Member States. The Affiliate Members Department represents UN Tourism’s 500 plus Affiliate members.
UN Tourism Communications Department+34 91 567 8100UN Tourism
