Tourism holds the potential to directly or indirectly contribute to all of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Notably, it has been integrated into in Goals 8, 12 and 14, focusing on inclusive and sustainable economic growth, sustainable consumption and production and the sustainable use of oceans and marine resources, respectively. (World Tourism Organization, n.d.).
Estimates suggest that tourism's carbon footprint accounts for approximately 8%-11% of global greenhouse gas emissions. (World Travel & Tourism Council, 2021).
According to the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (2022), sustainable tourism refers to sustainable practices in and by the tourism industry. This approach acknowledges all impacts of tourism, both positive and negative, with the aim of minimising the negative effects while maximizing the positive ones.
This guide provides resources showcasing how the tourism sector in Singapore and around the world is embracing sustainability principles.
Singapore was the world’s first country to be certified as a sustainable destination based on the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC)’s Destination Criteria, after being the first to apply the certification process on a country level. In 2022, together with Resorts World Sentosa, Sentosa Island became the first destination in Asia to be certified according to the Global Sustainable Tourism Council Destination criteria.
Some resources which have been developed to make Singapore a sustainable urban destination are listed below.
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A joint initiative of the National Environment Agency and Singapore Hotel Association, this guidebook aims to provide hotels with practical step-by-step guidelines on planning and implementing a 3R (reduce, reuse, recycle) programme. It also features case studies of some hotels in Singapore that have successfully implemented the 3Rs. https://www.nea.gov.sg/docs/default-source/default-document-library/3r-guidebook-for-hotels.pdf |
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3R Toolkit for the Meetings, Incentives, Conventions & Exhibitions (MICE) Industry
Developed by the NEA in conjunction with STB and members of SACEOS, this toolkit provides guidance on 3R initiatives (reduce, reuse, recycle) for MICE event organisers. https://www.nea.gov.sg/docs/default-source/default-document-library/mice_3r_toolkit.pdf |
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Published by American Express Global Business Travel in partnership with Singapore Tourism Board, this paper introduces a framework for identifying green destinations. It also examines the policies and practices that Singapore has in place to to create a strong proposition for green meetings and events. |
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Sentosa Playbook for Reducing Disposables A joint publication from Sentosa Development Corporation and WWF-Singapore, this guide provides a structured approach based on best practices for all businesses on Sentosa and the Southern Islands to reduce the use of disposables in their operations. |
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The Framework promotes sustainability across Sentosa Development Corporation's operations, in line with national sustainability initiatives to mitigate climate-related risks. It consists of the following three main focus areas: Sustainable Travel and Leisure Activities; Decarbonisation and Closing the Waste Loop; and Integrative Planning, Design and Development of Masterplan Zones. https://www.sentosa.gov.sg/what-we-do/sustainable-sentosa/overview |
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Singapore MICE Sustainability @ SACEOS SACEOS (Singapore Association of Convention & Exhibition Organisers & Suppliers), in partnership with Singapore Tourism Board, is leading the Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, Exhibitions and Events industry's efforts to become more sustainable. It has developed a MICE Sustainability Roadmap as well as guidelines for waste management. |
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The Time is Now: Sustainability in Business Events Industry Illustrates the next-level actions the business event industry in Singapore must collectively take improve environmental sustainability. It outlines areas of influence of event organisers and opportunities for maximum engagement; identifies necessary initiatives, engagement, and resources that are required to raise awareness, build capacity among event planners, and give impetus to action; and provides practical resources for organisers to use. |
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Tourism Sustainability Programme (TSP) @ Singapore Tourism Board Developed to support the building of a sustainable tourism sector in Singapore, the TSP focus areas include capability development and growth, innovation, as well as education and awareness. https://www.stb.gov.sg/content/stb/en/assistance-and-licensing/tsp.html |
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Enhancing Resilience to Drive Sustainability in Destinations This report describes the range of possible resilience actions - relating to the natural environment, infrastructure, water & energy, economic resilience, and social resilience - that destinations can undertake to prepare for the next catastrophic event, and to ensure the long-term sustainability of their evolving tourism activities. |
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Good Practices for Sustainable Cruise Tourism: Final Report This study examines cruise tourism's sustainability amid the European Green Deal policy context. It analyzes economic, social, and environmental aspects, highlights challenges, and proposes no-regrets measures like clear environmental goals, circular economy principles, energy efficiency, and collaboration. Case studies showcase various good practices, emphasizing the importance of local specificities in adopting solutions. |
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Green Lodging Trends Report 2022
A global benchmarking study on sustainability best practices in hotels based on data received from about 27,000 hotels across 54 countries. For select best practices, country rankings are also available. https://greenview.sg/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Green_Lodging_Trends_Report_2022.pdf |
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How to Create the Sustainable Travel Products Customers Want
Produced by Accenture and the World Economic Forum, this report makes the case for accelerated investments in sustainable travel products by providing an analysis of the opportunities and challenges of developing sustainability offerings. It also includes recommendations on how to design, develop and offer sustainable travel products. https://www.weforum.org/whitepapers/how-to-create-the-sustainable-travel-products-customers-want/ |
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Study to Develop a Framework on Sustainable Tourism Development in ASEAN in the Post Covid-19 Era Analyses the impact of COVID-19 on sustainable tourism in 10 ASEAN Member States and identifies best practices on tourism sustainability to aid the implementation of sustainable tourism at both the country and regional levels. |
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Ten Principles for Sustainable Destinations: Charting a New Path Forward for Travel and Tourism
Published by the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Sustainable Tourism, this white paper presents ten principles for tourism to be an effective vehicle for biodiversity and heritage conservation, targeted climate action and the fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goals. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Ten_Principles_for_Sustainable_Destinations_2022.pdf |
The Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism was officially launched at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November 2021. It encourages the acceleration of climate action in tourism by securing commitments to reduce emissions in tourism by at least 50% over the course of this decade and achieve Net Zero as soon as possible before 2050. To date, there are over 800 signatories to the Declaration, including tourism boards, hotel groups, destination managements companies, tour operators and cruise companies.
Some notable reports on the pathways to Net Zero for the tourism industry are listed below.
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Envisioning Tourism in 2030 and Beyond: The Changing Shape of Tourism in a Decarbonising World This report explores what a thriving, decarbonising tourism sector could look like in 2030 and 2050. It highlights implications for each industry sector to consider, including aviation, rail, tour operators, accommodation providers, tourist boards and the car and ferry industries, as well as the need to influence other key sectors which tourism relies on. https://www.thetravelfoundation.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/EnvisionTourism_Full_FINAL.pdf |
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Global Accommodation Sector: The Road to Net Zero Emissions Accommodations account for roughly 10% of emissions throughout the tourism sector. This identifies concrete measures for the accommodation sector to abate carbon emission by implementing the best available technologies. It also estimates the associated investment and implementation costs, and surveys existing barriers to taking action. Finally, the report shows how a wider set of stakeholders can support accommodations in their decarbonisation efforts and accelerate the green transition. |
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Net Zero Methodology for Hotels Sets out a recommended approach to support hotels and the wider hotel industry to make net-zero commitments and take action to achieve them. https://greenview.sg/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/NZMFH2-June23.pdf |
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A Net Zero Roadmap for the Events Industry Provides a framework to guide the events industry on its journey to Net Zero by setting out the pathway and priority action areas. It also includes guidelines and resources to provide technical support to companies. |
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A Net Zero Roadmap for Travel and Tourism Highlights the status quo of climate action of Travel & Tourism businesses within selected industries, as well as current challenges, opportunities and needs. It also looks at what net zero journeys could look like for different types of businesses in this sector and gives guidance and recommendations on potential climate action. https://wttc.org/Portals/0/Documents/Reports/2021/WTTC_Net_Zero_Roadmap.pdf |
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This document aims to educate tourism stakeholders and provide evidence-based guidance for decision-making to address pollution from single-use plastic products. It presents key messages and recommendations for single-use plastic products such as bottles, cups, bags, take-away food packaging, toiletries and straws. |
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Food & Plastic Waste Reduction: Standards for Tourism Business Developed by Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), these standards cover all phases of food and plastic consumption: sourcing, usage and disposal. Step-by-step guidelines for reducing and managing food and plastic waste responsibly are also available from these two other resources - BUFFET Toolkit: Building an Understanding For Food Excess in Tourism and the Plastic Free Toolkit for Tour Operators. https://src.pata.org/business-resilience-and-sustainability/ |
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Global Tourism Plastics Initiative Launched in January 2020 by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Tourism Organization, the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative brings together businesses, governments and other tourism stakeholders to stop plastic ending up as pollution, and reduce the amount of new plastic that is produced in the first place. Its repository contains curated guidelines, toolkits and reports. https://www.unwto.org/sustainable-development/global-tourism-plastics-initiative |
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Rethinking Single-Use Plastic Products in Travel & Tourism This report by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Travel & Tourism Council presents research to better understand travel and tourism’s specific contribution to single-use plastic products and how sector actors can and are decreasing environmental impact. The report highlights some of the key challenges that still need to be addressed to contribute to a more sustainable future and also features selected practical case studies where single-use plastic products have been successfully phased out. https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/36324/RSUP.pdf |
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Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) Foundation Established to create positive change in the global business travel industry by driving and funding initiatives that foster sustainability, inclusion, and equity in business travel. It publishes reports on sustainability topics such as Managing Emissions from Business Travel Programs and The State of Sustainability in the Global Business Travel Sector. |
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Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) The GSTC establishes and manages global standards for sustainable travel and tourism, known as the GSTC Criteria. There are two sets: Destination Criteria for public policy-makers and destination managers, and Industry Criteria for hotels and tour operators. |
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One Planet Sustainable Tourism Programme A multi-stakeholder partnership that aims to accelerate sustainable consumption in tourism policies and practices. It promotes knowledge sharing and networking opportunities to define collective priorities and identify solutions. https://www.oneplanetnetwork.org/programmes/sustainable-tourism |
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Sustainable Hospitality Alliance Aims to accelerate the path to net positive hospitality for sector sustainability. It has created a Pathway to Net Positive Hospitality that provides a four-stage guidance framework that supports all parts of the hospitality value chain. |
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Sustainable Development @ World Tourism Organization
Promoting sustainable tourism policies and practices is one of the main priorities of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). |
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An international sustainable tourism organisation that aims to create a better future for tourism destinations and a more balanced tourism model through advocacy, training, demonstrating good practice and enabling collaboration between many tourism stakeholders. |
"Measure and disclose all travel and tourism-related emissions" is the first of the five pathways to guide climate action under the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism.
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This report by the World Tourism Organization provides an overview of global efforts within the tourism sector to address greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It assesses the current state of GHG emissions measurement in tourism, including methodologies, approaches, and frameworks used for measurement. The report also highlights the available tools for measuring emissions and evaluates the progress made in developing these methods. In addition, it outlines the necessary steps to better support the tourism sector in effectively measuring its emissions. |
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Global Destination Sustainability (GDS) Movement A collaborative platform created to improve the sustainability of destinations in the business and leisure tourism world. It publishes the GDS-Index, a benchmark that uses 69 indicators across four key areas to evaluate the sustainability performance of global destinations. It also publishes reports highlighting key trends affecting the business and leisure tourism industry, as well as the sustainability initiatives from destinations around the world. |
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Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism @ UNWTO Aims to provide an internationally agreed statistical framework to measure the impacts and dependencies of tourism on the economy, society and the environment. https://www.unwto.org/tourism-statistics/measuring-sustainability-tourism |
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Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism - Learning from Pilots This report draws from 12 case studies worldwide to demonstrate how tourism's impacts are being measured on the ground. It examines measurements at the national level as well as specific regions and destinations. |
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Top Countries for Sustainable Tourism, Embracing a Green Transformation for Travel Recovery The Euromonitor International report utilizes a Sustainability Index to analyze how 99 countries prioritize social and environmental values in their strategies for sustainable tourism. The Index assesses seven key pillars that form the foundation of sustainable tourism, focusing on environmental, social, and economic sustainability, as well as country risk, sustainable tourism demand, transport, and lodging. The report features additional top countries for each pillar and showcases best practice case studies. |
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Tourism Sustainable Development Index (TSDI) The TSDI is based on Big Data from Copernicus Sentinels and other Earth observation data to provide forecasting on the impact of climate change and responding to societal challenges related to the tourism sector. |