Tourism4SDG is a new initiative, co-financed by the European Union within the Interreg Europe programme, aiming to enhance tourism policy instruments (PI) to effectively achieve sustainable tourism in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Tourism poses significant challenges to sustainability in Europe, particularly impacting the achievement of SDG 8.9. Although tourism has the potential to stimulate economic growth, it also produces 8% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and puts tremendous strain on regional infrastructure and resources. Current tourism policy instruments focus on inclusivity and sustainability but often fall short of fully aligning with the SDGs. Moreover, the sustainability impact of sustainable tourism initiatives is not being measured, prompting the question: “To what extent tourism is, in fact, becoming more sustainable?”.
To answer this, Tourism4SDG will enhance partners’ capacity to measure tourism sustainability through the integration of monitoring methodologies, tools, and specific indicators, answering to the challenge proposed by SDG 12.b. Over a 4-year collaborative learning process, the project will ensure that policy instruments effectively contribute to sustainable tourism, by providing data and insights necessary to guide strategic decisions and foster successful sustainability outcomes
Tourism4SDG counts on 8 EU member project partners and 2 discovery partners. The project partners are Coimbra Region Intermunicipal Community in Portugal, Asociación Ibérica de Municipios Ribereños del Duero in Spain, Lubelskie Voivodeship in Poland, Nyíregyháza Municipality in Hungary, Visit Zuid-Limburg in The Netherlands, Communauté d’Agglomération de LaRochelle in France, Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia (Latvia), Tartu County Tourism Foundation in Estonia. The discovery partners are the Regional Council Durres in Albania and the Municipality of Sokobanja in Serbia.
Tourism4SDG commenced in April 2024 and will run until June 2028. For more information about the project, please visit Tourism4SDG website.
For more information about the Tourism4SDG project: Mare-Liis Kanarik, mareliis.kanarik@visittartu.com.