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The aim of the presented project was to develop a practicable system for measuring sustainability of national tourism in Germany. Initially, 18 sustainability criteria for tourism were identified. In a second step, these criteria were analyzed with regard to their measurability using indicators in a coherent accounting system in compliance with international recommendations. The outcome is a Tourism Sustainability Satellite Account (TSSA), a system of
indicators which is mainly based on statistical frameworks of national accounts and environmental-economic accounts. In addition, social indicators have been added that mainly measure decent job creation in tourism. Thus, the TSSA allows a systematic allocation of the
economic, ecological and social impacts of tourism to the tourism-relevant economic sectors at a national level. However, there is still a need for development of some sustainability indicators,
especially from the management and, to some extent, the ecological sector.
As a test, the TSSA indicators have been filled with currently available data. The results show that tourism in Germany contributes significantly to creating added value and jobs, although labor productivity is low. In terms of ecological impacts, climate impacts with a slightly above-average greenhouse gas intensity compared to the economy as a whole are at the top of the list, although this intensity varies significantly within the tourism sub-sectors. Working conditions are generally considered to be less sustainable than in other industries. Only the pay gap between men and women is significantly smaller than in other sectors of the economy.
The project presented here has pursued two main goals. First, the so-called Tourism Sustainability Satellite Account (TSSA), an accounting system for measuring the sustainability of tourism in Germany, which was initially developed and applied in the previous project phase,
was repopulated with the currently available data. The TSSA is an extended tourism satellite account (TSA) and indicator system respectively that is essentially based on the statistical
frameworks of national accounts (NA) and environmental economic accounts (EEA). In addition, the TSSA includes social indicators that measure the sustainability of labour relations in tourism.
The TSSA thus enables a systematic attribution of the economic, environmental and social impacts of tourism to tourism-related economic sectors at the national level.
The results of the TSSA update show that tourism in Germany continues to make a significant contribution to value added and job creation. Around 3.6 % of total gross value added and 6.1 % of employment were attributable to tourism in Germany in 2019. However, labour productivity in the tourism sector remains relatively low.
In terms of environmental impact, energy consumption in the tourism sector has slightly increased compared to the last measurement (based on data from 2015 or 2016). However, energy intensity has decreased over the same period. Energy intensity in tourism is about as
high as for the average of the German economy. Regarding tourism-induced greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and particularly emissions intensity, the situation has also improved, even though the GHG emissions intensity of tourism is still well above the average of the German economy. Within the tourism sector, transportation (in particular aviation and shipping) contribute the most to energy use and GHG emissions. By contrast, tourism-induced water consumption appears to be less of a problem in Germany. The water intensity of tourism is significantly lower than the average of the German economy. Within the tourism sector it is the highest in accommodation and gastronomy.
In terms of the social sustainability dimension, the relatively low and decreasing income gap between men and women (known as the Gender Pay Gap; unadjusted) in the tourism sector over time is worth mentioning. By contrast, all other indicators regarding the working conditions in tourism continue to perform less favourably. Consequently, employees in the tourism sector still assess the working conditions as worse compared to the average of the overall economy.
It has already been shown in the previous project phase that for some sustainability indicators, especially from the ecological dimension, a consideration within the framework of the TSSA approach is not possible without restrictions. This is due, among other things, to the insufficient data available from official statistics and the complexity of causally attributing certain ecological effects to tourism activities. In the second part of the project presented here, a detailed research of existing data bases was therefore conducted for the environmental indicators "biodiversity", "water quality", "noise pollution", "land use", "air emissions" and "waste generation" as well as for the social indicator "tourism acceptance". Based on this, it was evaluated to what extent alternative accounting approaches - as a supplement to the TSSA measurement system - can indicate the tourism effect. The data screening initially confirmed the insufficient data
availability at national level.
The subsequent feasibility analysis yielded that a spatial differentiation according to the degree of tourism relevance (based on tourism density and intensity) and an ensuing analysis of the
change in environmental conditions in regions strongly influenced by tourism in comparison to the overall German average represents an opportunity to quantify the contribution of tourism e.g. to land use. On the one hand, existing official regional data could be used here. On the other hand, additional data collections at the local level would also be essential for certain environmental indicators in the future. In other cases, in particular for biodiversity impacts and
solid waste generation, the preconditions for suitable data availability must be created first. By contrast, the acceptance of tourism by residents can easily be measured through standardised
surveys.