The United Nations has taken a major step in recognizing tourism’s role in sustainable development by adopting a new tourism employment indicator as part of the official Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Indicator Framework.
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.
UN Tourism Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili says: “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’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.
