Challenges of national measurement of environmental sustainability in tourism

Environmental sustainability indicators are commonly used to assess progress towards sustainability. Assessing environmental impacts associated with a specific economic sector can provide a more detailed view of the effects of economic activities on the environmental performance of a nation. A national indicator set, specifically developed for Iceland, was evaluated for its capacity to capture environmental sustainability impacts from the tourism sector. Iceland's tourism sector is an interesting case because of its recent fast-paced growth and concerns regarding its environmental impacts. The indicator set was evaluated based on two criteria: relevance and measurability in the context of Iceland's tourism sector. Though most of the indicators were relevant to the tourism context, they did not fulfil the measurability criteria due to disaggregation issues, omissions of important topics and lack of data. Partial measurement was possible for 12 out of 23 of the reviewed indicators, e.g., most indicators in the air pollution theme could be measured whereas indicators in the water theme were of limited measurability. A preliminary calculation of the indicators revealed that despite the partial measurement, the impact of tourism was discernible though often underestimated due to limited data. Knowledge building concerning data gaps was one of the derived outcomes of the analytical process. National indicators of environmental sustainability can at best provide only a partial appraisal, and comprehensive evaluation of the tourism sector's impacts demands multi-scale analysis and indicators specific to the sector