Sweden tops the Sustainable Travel Index among 99 countries

As per a Report – Top Countries for Sustainable Tourism – by Euromonitor International, “Sweden tops the Sustainable Travel Index in 2020 and proves sustainability can enhance the travel experience”.

Creating data and analysis on various services and products worldwide, Euromonitor International is the leading independent provider of strategic market research globally.

Providing market research solutions that connect an organization’s goals with global opportunities, the research expertise of Euromonitor International enables many to better understand future product demand.

The data included in the Report is as per Passport, Euromonitor International’s market research database [at time of publication: March 2021].

While stating that the recovery for the travel and tourism industry would “become less linear” with the emergence of new COVID-19 variants, the Report finds that “social and environmental values will be at the core of new strategies”.

As destinations around the world gradually begin to reopen – while protecting the local communities – and preserve livelihoods, there is a growing awareness across businesses, consumers, as well as governments for the need of prioritizing “not only profit but people and the planet”.

Though domestic tourism might help with recovery in the short to mid-term, radical change will be essential for building resilience and agility for futureproofing the sector.

With the United Nations [UN] Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs] serving as a blueprint, travel and tourism businesses are coming together to declare a climate emergency.

According to the Report, “Sustainable transformations will play a significant factor in the future to ensure businesses and communities can thrive in a post-COVID age.”

Euromonitor International has developed a Sustainable Travel Index for assisting destinations and travel businesses to shift to a more sustainable tourism model.

Each of the countries on the Euromonitor International’s Sustainable Travel Index was analyzed across 7 key pillars that constitute sustainable tourism.

7 Sustainable Travel Pillars

Environmental Sustainability

Social Sustainability

Economic Stability

Risk

Sustainable Demand

Sustainable Transport

Sustainable Lodging

These sustainable travel pillars were used for assessing 99 countries.

Overall, 57 data indicators were used for coming to the final index ranking in order to determine the comparative performance of countries.

Sweden tops the Sustainable Travel Index in 2020, proving sustainability can enhance the travel experience.

Sustainable Travel Index Rankings 2020
Rank	Country	Rank	Country	Rank	Country	Rank	Country
1	Sweden	26	Belarus	51	Laos	76	Thailand
2	Finland	27	Hungary	52	Cameroon	77	Hong Kong, China
3	Austria	28	Romania	53	Japan	78	South Korea
4	Estonia	29	Australia	54	Brazil	79	Lebanon
5	Norway	30	Ukraine	55	Taiwan	80	Maldives
6	Slovakia	31	Peru	56	China	81	Sri Lanka
7	Iceland	32	Greece	57	Oman	82	Kuwait
8	Latvia	33	North Macedonia	58	UAE	83	Fiji
9	France	34	Italy	59	Myanmar	84	Macau, China
10	Slovenia	35	USA	60	Algeria	85	Malaysia
11	Switzerland	36	Malta	61	Costa Rica	86	Qatar
12	Lithuania	37	Panama	62	Kazakhstan	87	Kenya
13	Croatia	38	Serbia	63	Tunisia	88	Dominican Republic
14	Czech Republic	39	Bulgaria	64	Colombia	89	Guatemala
15	Ireland	40	UK	65	Russia	90	Nigeria
16	Germany	41	Georgia	66	Turkey	91	Egypt
17	Belgium	42	Chile	67	Jamaica	92	Indonesia
18	Denmark	43	Jordan	68	Mozambique	93	Singapore
19	Netherlands	44	Cyprus	69	Azerbaijan	94	Philippines
20	Portugal	45	Israel	70	Bahrain	95	Morocco
21	Poland	46	South Africa	71	Tanzania	96	Vietnam
22	Bolivia	47	Uruguay	72	Saudi Arabia	97	Mauritius
23	New Zealand	48	Argentina	73	Uzbekistan	98	India
24	Canada	49	Ecuador	74	Cambodia	99	Pakistan
25	Spain	50	Bosnia and Herzegovina	75	Mexico	-	-

Sweden, as per the Report, “has focused on generating higher levels of value derived from tourism which has helped its economy, environment and society, leading to improvements across many pillars”.

The Report comes to the conclusion that there was a “clear change in mindset to resist returning to a volume-driven travel and tourism model”. Stakeholders were instead “rallying together to ‘build back better’ through value creation from sustainable tourism”.

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