First webinar
7:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. New York time
24 September 2025
(Tourism Statistics: Tools and Techniques for Data-Driven Decisions)
Second webinar
7:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. New York time
26 November 2025
(Leveraging Data for Responsible Tourism)
Tourism statistics play a critical role in understanding and shaping the travel and tourism industry. Accurate data collection and analysis help governments, businesses, and stakeholders make informed decisions that drive economic growth, enhance visitor experiences, and promote sustainable tourism practices. Policymakers use the information to allocate resources effectively regarding infrastructure development or enhanced services that support the industry. Statistics on tourism help destination managers understand visitor preferences, behaviors, and demographic profiles. Finally, accurate Tourism data is a valuable tool for businesses and investors in the tourism sector, from airlines and hoteliers to tour operators and retail outlets as it helps them understand market trends, demand patterns, and customer preferences, enabling smarter investments, competitive pricing, and tailored services that meet the needs of tourists.
This webinar will help participants get a global perspective of the importance of tourism information from the perspective of users, showcase new developments regarding data sources and compilation methods, and dive into the measurement of new trends such as wellness and cultural tourism.
Session 1 – Welcome and Opening Remarks
Andre Loranger Co-Chair of the United Nations Network of Economic Statisticians and Chief Statistician of Canada
Mariane Bien-Aimé, Assistant Director Statistics Canada
Session 2 – Unlocking the Power of Tourism Data
This session will provide a user perspective of how tourism is a vital industry with significant economic, social, and environmental benefits and how tourism data is crucial for policymaking, business planning and sustainability.
This presentation will cover the role of tourism in sustainable development and measuring the sustainability of tourism. The speaker will provide an overview of the statistical framework for measuring the sustainability of tourism and provide some examples of pilot projects illustrating the use of the framework.
Presenter: Clara van der Pol, Director AI Statistics, Standards and Data Department
Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada will present how it makes use of Tourism Labour Statistics to provide a breakdown of the workforce in tourism industries. The breakdown, by industry, geography and, most significantly, demographics, provides insight on the level of representation of specific equity-seeking groups in tourism industries. Through our multiple products, we paint a broad picture of the tourism workforce in Canada, in which we can identify our strengths and areas of improvement relative to other industries.
Presenter: Ennio Palombizio, Senior Economist, Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada
This presentation will provide a comprehensive summary of the different types of data commonly used within the tourism industry, with a special focus on the MATI Member Portal and Statistical Snapshots. It will demonstrate how these data resources support informed business decisions and strategic planning, while also identifying existing data gaps that need to be addressed.
Presenter: Mohamed Yasir, Deputy Executive Director, Maldives Association of Tourism Industry
The Wealth and Wellbeing Index is a comprehensive measurement framework designed to capture the true value of tourism, emphasizing sustainability, inclusivity, and community enrichment. This is a new approach that enables nuanced understanding of tourism’s broad-based contributions to national and regional well-being, beyond traditional economic metrics.
Presenter: Michel Dubreuil, Lead Tourism Economist, Destination Canada
Discussion
Health Break - 10 minutes
Session 3 – The Future of Tourism: Understanding and Measuring New Trends
Session 3 will showcase examples of work that addresses challenges related to scarce data sources and the use of innovative tools such as AI, machine learning and geospatial analysis to meet quality and timeliness challenges. The audience will also learn about the new trends that are shaping the future of tourism, such as wellness and cultural travelling, and the adoption of augmented reality. The objectives of making travel experiences more inclusive and reduce inequality for both travelers and tourism employees will also be explored.
The presentation is dealing with the rationale measuring tourism acceptance in Austria. Furthermore, the focus is on methodological principles such as the survey procedure, sampling and the design of the questionnaire. Finally, the results 2024 will be presented providing transparent insights into the social impact of tourism and form the basis for evidence-based measures.
Presenters: Mr. Peter Laimer: Head Tourism Statistics Department and Ms. Rebecca Daul: Project Manager Travel Behavior and Tourism Acceptance
This presentation will explore the emerging trends shaping the future of global tourism, with a focus on wellness and cultural travel experiences. It will highlight how access to reliable tourism data enables the Department of Tourism in Bhutan to respond to evolving traveler demands and design evidence-based strategies. The session will also discuss the impact of these trends on Bhutan’s tourism workforce and showcase how industry stakeholders are adapting to remain competitive and sustainable.
Presenter: Ms. Phub Zam Asst. Tourism Officer, Bhutan Department of Tourism
Public data and is often not easily accessible or easily interpreted by users, who could benefit a lot from reliable and comparable statistics. The Chatbot hAIdi is used specifically to overcome this issue of accessibility.
Presenter: Fabian L. Schrey, PhD, Scientific Associate, Swiss Federal Statistical Office
The presentation will showcase indicators of accessibility to services and resources and discuss how they can inform tourism sustainability analyses.
Presenter: Ana I. Moreno Monroy, Head of Territorial Statistics and Analysis Unit, OECD
Discussion
Chair