During the 55th session of the United Nations Statistical Commission, the Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism (SF-MST) was officially adopted by all 193 UN member states, including the Philippines. In one of the breakout sessions, the Philippines, together with two other countries, reflected on their pioneering efforts in implementing the framework. The SF-MST is an internationally agreed framework for the delineation of concepts and structure of data organization for the estimation of the sustainability of tourism in the economy, society, and the environment.
(Left photo) UnitedNations Statistical Commission 55th session plenary.(Right photo) NationalStatistician and Civil Registrar General Claire Dennis S. Mapa presenting the initiatives of the Philippines in compiling the Tourism Satellite Accounts and Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism at the high level side event (Source: Ms. Jessica Ying-Chan,UNSD)
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is a regional pioneer in compiling Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism (MST) since 2021. MST provides useful information towards achieving a suitable balance among the economic, environmental, and social aspects of tourism development. Important indicators included in the MST report of the Philippines are water consumption, energy consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions of tourism.
The Philippines was involved in a collaborative effort to develop MST framework. In 2017, the Philippines hosted the 6th UN World Tourism Organization International Conference on Tourism Statistics that paved the way for the setting of the MST roadmap. The Philippines, through PSA and the Department of Tourism, actively contributed to the development of the SF-MST by participating in research and expert group meetings and by providing inputs in global consultations. In addition, PSA served as the first chairperson of the Editorial Board of SF-MST.
The MST utilizes information from the Philippine Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), which is a satellite account regularly compiled by the PSA. Moreover, efforts towards the estimation of regional MST and TSA are currently undertaken in pilot regions of the country.
CLAIRE DENNIS S. MAPA, PhD
Undersecretary
National Statistician and Civil Registrar General
