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.
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 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.
But previously the SDG tourism indicators only measured two things: The implantation of accounting tools to monitor economic and environmental aspects of tourism sustainability; and tourism Direct GDP as the proportion of the total GDP and growth rate.
The new indicator offers a broader perspective on tourism’s sustainability that better considers social progress. Derived from the Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism, it 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.
“What gets measured, gets done. As part of Goal 8, we strive for sustainable tourism that creates jobs.” said UN Tourism Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili. “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.”
Endorsed at the 56th session of the UN Statistical Commission, this decision means that 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.
The data will be available on the SDG Global Database, as well as on the UN Tourism Statistics Database website.
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.
