Development of Sustainability Indicators for Tourism in Scotland 2009

Project Summary

SNH commissioned a collaborative team, SISTech and Dunira Strategies, to identify appropriate indicators to benchmark and monitor Scotland’s tourism sector against a European context. This work has included the identification of appropriate indicators, a benchmarking exercise ranking Scotland within Europe measured against suitable indicators, an analysis of sustainable development in an agreed set of comparator destinations, and a manual on the use of indicators and the monitoring process. The main output of this project was a comprehensive assessment tool, the Indicator Workbook, which allows non sustainability specialists to carry out the indicator assessment exercise in a comparable and consistent way. An implementation and communication were devised along with a risk management strategy.

The Study Team devised a methodology which combined: in depth review on existing sustainable tourism indicators development literature, stakeholder consultation (both with experts and local businesses), steering group consultation (including members from STP, VisitScotland), the use of revised UNWTO Development & Selection worksheets and criteria of evaluation, and a sustainability mapping process which aligned the sustainable tourism indicators for Scotland with priority sustainable areas as evinced from literature review.

Project Partners

This project was funded by Scottish Natural Heritage and was completed by a collaborative team from SISTech and Dunira Strategies.