By Dean M. Bernardo, eTN Manila.

Manila, the Philippines (21 June 2017) – UNWTO – Two days prior to the formal holding of the on-going United Nations World Tourism Organization’s (UNWTO) “International Conference on Tourism Statistics for Sustainable Development,” countries with technical know-how on tourism data generation where in Manila for “capacity building.”

UNWTO statistician John Kesster said the group with delegates from Southeast Asia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Belarus and Turkey discussed the “economic impact of tourism that’s compatible with the national system of accounts, to enable governments to measure tourism like any economic indicator.”

Kesster said delegates from different countries shared heir experiences including travel practitioners who shared their own experience. He adds that there were a number of varying types of tables on tourism that needs to be standardized, in a meaningful way.

He also stated that “developing standards for tourism is continuously evolving.” The group aims to develop a framework for very simple standards of measurements, and in time “improve and elaborate.”

He cited the ever changing activities in tourism as reasons for evolving metrics such as; effects of ride hailing phone apps like Uber in the metrics.

Kestter said, “We’ve never had that kind of activity ten years ago but now, we need to consider including that in assessing tourism activities as well.”

He also said “the challenge for statisticians nowadays is trying to keep up with the ever-changing innovations, try to create credible figures as possible.”