International Network of Sustainable Tourism Observatories

INSTO 2019 in Spain

Rome/Madrid [ENA] The World Tourism Organization’s (UNWTO) International Network of Sustainable Tourism Observatories (INSTO) welcomed more than 100 experts to its global annual meeting in Madrid, gathering observatories from all around the world as well as other stakeholders from the public, private and academic field to discuss the newest experiences in examining tourism impacts at destination level through the application

of traditional and non-traditional data sources. The first Global INSTO Meeting was held in 2016 and introduced destinations to the restructured framework of the network, giving participants the chance to familiarize themselves with the initiative and its mission and to mutually explore the status quo in measurement at the destination level. The second meeting in 2017 offered for the first time a Mentoring Breakfast where new destinations had the chance to be mentored by already advanced destinations. The third meeting in 2018 included another Mentoring Breakfast, presentations from destinations displaying their specific cases, different thematic discussions as well as interactive, practical sessions with illustrations of specific

monitoring processes. For the fourth time, UNWTO hosted the global INSTO meeting at its headquarters, offering the participants a miscellaneous programme including the traditional mentoring breakfast for new and interested destinations, keynotes on different topics such as Location Intelligence, Composite Indexes, Resource Management and Dynamic Flow Analytics. The Global INSTO Meetings offered already established observatories as well as interested destinations and other tourism stakeholders the opportunity to exchange experiences, learn about best practices and advance together in their monitoring efforts at the local level.

In order to further advance the dialogues among all participants, this year’s 2019 Global INSTO Meeting took place on 22/23 October, focusing specifically on relevant practical steps when establishing and maintaining the efforts of an observatory, including interactive, practical examples of translating destination problems into tangible data problems. Sustainable Tourism Observatories continue to be launched all around the world, functioning as instruments for improved evidence generation at the destination level. The changing content of the annual INSTO meetings is related to the advances within the field of tourism measurement in regard to non-traditional data and the opportunities stemming from new technological advances as

the sector is currently facing a strengthening of measurement efforts at the local level, moving towards more usefully aligned and integrated approaches. Observatories and industry experts shared latest techniques and experiences with the measurement of the mandatory issue areas (local satisfaction with tourism, destination economic benefits, employment, tourism seasonality, energy and water management, sewage management, solid waste management, governance) as well as the measurement of CO2 emissions and accessibility at destination level.

the Navarre Tourism Observatory (Spain), the Tourism Observatory of the City of Buenos Aires (Argentina), The Antigua Guatemala Sustainable Tourism Observatory (Guatemala), the Australia’s South West Tourism Observatory (Australia) and the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Observatory (Canada).

During INSTO 2019, there was the recognition of the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Observatory (BC, Canada), so a total of 5 new destinations joined the INSTO network in 2019: the Navarre Tourism Observatory (Spain), the Tourism Observatory of the City of Buenos Aires (Argentina), The Antigua Guatemala Sustainable Tourism Observatory (Guatemala), the Australia’s South West Tourism Observatory (Australia) and the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Observatory (Canada). Glenn Mandziuk, President & Chief Executive Officer, Thompson Okanagan Tourism Region said: “We are honoured to be selected as Canada’s first destination to join a network of leading organizations from around the world as part of the the UNWTO‘s INSTO program".