Ten Principles for Sustainable Destinations

The World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Sustainable Tourism outlines ten principles to transition the tourism sector toward sustainability. These include scientific monitoring, workforce cultivation, community prioritization, visitor alignment, and the protection of nature and heritage. The framework emphasizes a shift from destination marketing to destination management, advocating for circular economy practices, sustainable infrastructure, inclusive governance, and systemic resilience to mitigate climate change and future shocks.

• Sustainable destinations must move beyond traditional economic indicators—such as visitor numbers and expenditure—to include scientific, evidence-based measurements of social, cultural, and environmental impacts to track contributions to people and planet.
• The tourism workforce faces systemic challenges including low wages, long hours, and gender discrimination, which were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in the loss of approximately 62 million jobs (18.5% of the sector).
• Inclusive destination management requires prioritizing the well-being of local and indigenous communities to prevent economic inequality, financial leakage, and housing unaffordability, ensuring benefits are distributed equitably across the value chain.
• Visitor management should be based on the carrying capacity of a destination to avoid overcrowding and overtourism, utilizing marketing and education to encourage sustainable choices and spread visitor flows across time and space.
• Protecting cultural and natural heritage requires local leadership to avoid the over-commercialization of traditional practices and the dilution of local culture often associated with mass tourism.
• Destinations should implement circular economy pathways and science-based environmental management systems to reduce waste and optimize the use of energy, water, and biodiversity resources.
• Infrastructure investment must balance the needs of local populations with tourism development, focusing on climate resilience and the use of sustainable materials and energy, such as electric vehicles and LED lighting.
• Effective governance requires a shift from top-down regulation to participative frameworks that include stakeholder engagement and the institutionalization of tourism as a strategic priority to transcend political cycles.
• Resilience in tourism involves preparing for short-term shocks and long-term stressors—such as pandemics, conflicts, and climate change—by treating destinations as 'coupled human-environment systems'.

APA

World Economic Forum (2022). Ten Principles for Sustainable Destinations. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Ten_Principles_for_Sustainable_Destinations_2022.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Ten Principles for Sustainable Destinations. 2022. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Ten_Principles_for_Sustainable_Destinations_2022.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Ten Principles for Sustainable Destinations |date=September 2022 |url=https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Ten_Principles_for_Sustainable_Destinations_2022.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2022ten, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Ten Principles for Sustainable Destinations}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2022}, month = sep, url = {https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Ten_Principles_for_Sustainable_Destinations_2022.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }