Project description DEENESFRITPL How tourist boards learn about sustainability indicators Tourism plays a crucial role in the EU economy. It is crucial to improve the competitiveness of the European tourism industry and create more and better jobs through the sustainable growth of tourism in Europe. The EU-funded SusTPol project analyses how tourist boards learn about sustainability indicators and how they adapt them to their needs. It will also review how they transform their governance systems and exploit the competitive benefits accrued. In addition to collecting baseline data, the project will conduct a realist evaluation of the contextual factors that allow for the use of indicators to support the selection and implementation of policy mechanisms that promote sustainable development. The tourist boards in the cities of Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Barcelona (Spain), Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Vienna (Austria) will participate as pilots. Show the project objective Hide the project objective Objective SusTPol [Sustainable Tourism evidence-informed Policy] advances the understanding of using sustainability indicators to inform the governance of urban tourism. EU tourism policies recognise the importance of sustainability for competiveness, and the Commission contracted the University of Surrey to develop the European Tourism Indicator System. Yet the Commission still equates success to tourism’s contribution to growth and employment, and both Eurostat and European Cities Marketing measure tourist volume and expenditure, but not data on the impact that tourism has on residents or the environment. This IF contributes to implementing Communication “Europe, the world's No 1 tourist destination – a new political framework for tourism in Europe” and the Europe 2020 Strategy, by 1) experimenting with performance indicators of how tourism contributes to the EU policy on the Urban Environment, and 2) empowering policy makers so tourism contributes to implementing policies for sustainable urban planning and design. SusTPol analyses how tourist boards learn about sustainability indicators, adapt them to their needs, transform their governance systems and exploit the competitive benefits accrued. SusTPol collects baseline data (O1), supports tourist boards implement change in the form of policy-making experiments to support sustainable tourism development (O2) and conducts a Realist Evaluation (O3) of the contextual factors that allow for the use of indicators to support the selection and implementation of policy mechanisms that promote sustainable development. The tourist boards in the cities of Amsterdam (Netherlands), Barcelona (Spain), Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Vienna (Austria) agreed to participate as pilots, adapting their tourism planning, visitor management and marketing based on the results of residents’ social impact assessment of tourism. The outcomes will inform European Cities Marketing, enhancing the transferability and impact of this project. Fields of science social sciencessociologygovernancesocial scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementemployment Programme(s) H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Main Programme H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility Topic(s) MSCA-IF-2019 - Individual Fellowships Call for proposal H2020-MSCA-IF-2019 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF Coordinator UNIVERSITY OF SURREY Net EU contribution € 224 933,76 Address Stag hill GU2 7XH Guildford United Kingdom See on map Region South East (England) Surrey, East and West Sussex West Surrey Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Other funding € 0,00