The Travel Foundation and TUI Group - assessing the total impact of tourism
Putting a value on tourism: Is counting tourists a good measure of success?
Governments traditionally measure the success of their tourist industry by the number of arrivals. But how well does this value the contribution the industry actually makes, if at all? And, how useful is the information to guide strategy?
Tourism has struggled with impact assessment
Impacts have been looked at in isolation, and without any consistency or requirement. Governments have tried to understand the economic impact but recognise that this is only a part of the equation. A holistic perspective is needed as tourism is in a unique position, needing to balance the quality of the holidaymaker experience with the environmental impact they generate and the needs of the destination community. When they are out of alignment, travellers are unlikely to recommend or return. So counting tourists or even understanding the economics, doesn’t go far enough.
A total impact approach provides the ‘bigger picture’ perspective tourism needs
Taking into consideration the impact on the economy, tax contributions, society, and the environment generates a more complete picture. Rather than looking at each impact separately and without any consistency, a more meaningful and useful data set is created.
Working with the Travel Foundation and TUI Group
We’ve completed ground breaking work to understand the total impact of 60,000 holidaymakers visiting 8 TUI Group hotels during 2013 in Cyprus using PwC’s Total Impact Measurement and Management (TIMM) framework. It’s driven the development of new methodology to share with the tourism industry.
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