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OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2026OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2026This work was approved and declassified by the Tourism Committee on 17 June 2026. This document was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union. This document, as well as any data and map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. The statistical data for Israel are supplied by and under the responsibility of the relevant Israeli authorities. The use of such data by the OECD is without prejudice to the status of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank under the terms of international law. Note by the Republic of Türkiye The information in this document with reference to “Cyprus” relates to the southern part of the Island. There is no single authority representing both Turkish and Greek Cypriot people on the Island. Türkiye recognises the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). Until a lasting and equitable solution is found within the context of the United Nations, Türkiye shall preserve its position concerning the “Cyprus issue”. Note by all the European Union Member States of the OECD and the European Union The Republic of Cyprus is recognised by all members of the United Nations with the exception of Türkiye. The information in this document relates to the area under the effective control of the Government of the Republic of Cyprus.

Please cite this publication as: OECD (2026), OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2026, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/3fd3cd75-en.

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Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) This work is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. By using this work, you accept to be bound by the terms of this licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Attribution – you must cite the work. Translations – you must cite the original work, identify changes to the original and add the following text: In the event of any discrepancy between the original work and the translation, only the text of the original work should be considered valid. Adaptations – you must cite the original work and add the following text: This is an adaptation of an original work by the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed in this adaptation should not be reported as representing the official views of the OECD or of its Member countries. Third-party material – the licence does not apply to third-party material in the work. If using such material, you are responsible for obtaining permission from the third party and for any claims of infringement. You must not use the OECD logo, visual identity or cover image without express permission or suggest the OECD endorses your use of the work. Any dispute arising under this licence shall be settled by arbitration in accordance with the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) Arbitration Rules 2012. The seat of arbitration shall be Paris (France). The number of arbitrators shall be one. 3

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Foreword OECD Tourism Trends and Policies is an international reference and biennial benchmark to support countries in driving sustainable and competitive tourism growth. The publication brings together internationally comparable data on tourism and highlights good practices and key policy and governance

Internal tourism consumption The TSA Framework makes a distinction between tourism expenditure and tourism consumption. Tourism expenditure refers to monetary transactions, whereas tourism consumption also includes other transactions: services associated with vacation accommodation on own account, tourism social transfers in kind and other imputed consumption. However, the latter transactions have to be separately evaluated. Therefore, the data might refer to either consumption or expenditure, depending on the country. Three forms of consumption are distinguished: • Domestic tourism consumption: the tourism consumption of a resident visitor within the economy of reference. • Inbound tourism consumption: the tourism consumption of a non-resident visitor within the economy of reference. • Internal tourism consumption: the tourism consumption of both resident and non-resident visitors within the economy of reference. It is the sum of domestic tourism consumption and inbound tourism consumption.12 

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Tourism Direct Gross Domestic Product and other aggregates The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of an economy is defined as the sum of the gross value added generated by all industries. Tourism GDP corresponds to the part of GDP generated by all industries in response to internal tourism consumption. A further distinction must be made between direct tourism GDP and indirect tourism GDP. Put simply, tourism direct GDP reflects the direct value-added generated by industries directly in contact with visitors, while indirect tourism GDP reflects all of the upstream value-addedgenerated by industries supplying inputs to industries directly in contact with the visitors. The TSA Framework limits its recommendations to the evaluation of direct tourism GDP. The evaluation of indirect tourism GDP would require the use of input-output techniques or adjustments (for imports) of expenditure-based measures. Domestic, inbound and outbound tourism A variety of different data sources are used to measure flows of visitors. Data can be collected directly from individuals about their tourism trips. These ‘demand-side’ sources include visitor or border surveys to measure inbound tourism flows, and resident travel or household surveys to measure domestic and

international arrivals. Chile has introduced a 1.25% accommodation tax for inbound tourists that will finance the new International Tourism Promotion Fund under its Tourism Reactivation and Audiovisual Industry Promotion Bill. Colombia and Japan collect an international passenger tax which is used to fund tourismrelated programmes. In Japan, plans are underway to effectively triple the departure tax for all travellers leaving Japan from JPY 1 000 to JPY 3 000 as part of efforts to create a more balanced tourism model. Attracting private investment is fundamental to delivering a high-quality and competitive tourism offer. Tax incentives, favourable development regulations and the promotion of specific investment opportunities are strategies being used by countries to attract high-value investment from private companies. Stimulating private investment to mobilise tourism development and support the efficient use of resources is a key priority of many national tourism strategies, including Denmark’s Pathways to Sustainable Tourism Growth, Hungary’s National Active Tourism Strategy, and the Strategy of Slovenian Tourism 2022-28. Montenegro introduced a range of fiscal, tax and regulatory reforms to streamline pre-investment procedures to obtain permits and facilitate project development. To incentivise investment in high-quality accommodation, investors are exempt from paying import VAT on goods and services used in the construction of five-star hotels, while property taxes are reduced by 30% for four-star hotels and 70% for five-star hotels operating year-round. Egypt is also pursuing an ambitious investment strategy to expand its tourism capacity, with a target to increase the number of hotel rooms from approximately 228 000 rooms in 2024 to nearly 500 000 rooms by 2030. As part of this effort, Egypt is also launching a flagship Tourism 57

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Investment Map, designed as a dynamic platform to highlight investment opportunities across the sector and provide regularly updated information to investors. Argentina has worked with UN Tourism and the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean to develop a guide to showcase the country’s investment potential. The guide highlights key regional assets, competitive advantages, and available tax incentives at both federal and provincial level, alongside recent

support, expanded support for existing businesses looking to develop new offerings, and the provision of technical assistance from the start-up phase to help structure projects and facilitate access to financing. As previously noted in this chapter, small businesses and SMEs in particular continue to face constraints in accessing the financing needed to support their transition to more resource-efficient and digitally enabled operations (OECD, 2026[19]). Despite the availability of a wider range of private and public financing instruments, access to finance remains a persistent challenge in the sector. There is scope to encourage greater uptake of economy-wide financing instruments, while also developing targeted instruments that address specific tourism-related needs, without duplicating broader SME support frameworks. At the same time, more needs to be done to strengthen the financial literacy, capacity and preparedness of tourism SMEs and entrepreneurs to access and effectively use available financing instruments. Steps are now being taken to integrate environmental and social considerations into tourism investment decision making frameworks and financial reporting mechanisms. In Austria, new funding guidelines for tourism SMEs launched in 2023 include a sustainability bonus of 3.5% (as of July 2025) in additional funding up to EUR 175 000 for investments aligned with ecological, social and economic objectives. The funding scheme is administered by the Austrian Bank for Tourism Development (OeHT), which also provides tourism SMEs with a 3% interest subsidy for projects that meet specific ecological requirements, such as thermal rehabilitation, changing heating systems to renewable energy, introducing new energy-efficient devices, or undertaking measures to undo soil sealing. In parallel, Austria has developed a set of key performance indicators tailored to the tourism sector to support ESG measurement, responding to the growing demand from financial institutions requiring businesses to provide robust sustainability reporting for investment and financing decisions. Denmark introduced new sustainability reporting on certified tourism businesses, with support provided to SMEs and entrepreneurs to meet new requirements. The goal is to have 70% of all accommodation establishments and amusement parks achieve baseline certification by 2030. In Ireland, under the Tourism58 

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SMEs and entrepreneurs to meet new requirements. The goal is to have 70% of all accommodation establishments and amusement parks achieve baseline certification by 2030. In Ireland, under the Tourism58 

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Sectoral Adaptation Plan, all future Fáilte Ireland schemes providing financial assistance will include specific conditions and measures related to climate adaptation from 2027. In Belgium, the region of Wallonia is also shifting away from general subsidies toward more structured funding mechanisms that prioritise projects aligned with environmental and social objectives, alongside the development of a platform to co-ordinate initiatives and facilitate the exchange of best practices. Spain has invested over EUR 3.4 billion as part of the Plan for the Modernisation and Competitiveness of the Tourism Sector, financed under the Recovery and Resilience Facility, a flagship instrument of Next Generation EU. Actions were aimed at transforming the tourism model towards sustainability, promoting digitalisation and intelligence for destinations and the tourism sector, and strengthening the overall competitiveness of destinations. As such reporting requirements become more prominent, SMEs will require clearer frameworks and practical tools to address data collection and reporting challenges (OECD, 2025[29]). Providing accessible guidance and user-friendly digital solutions can help smaller businesses to collect the relevant information and comply with emerging standards, while avoiding disproportionate administrative burdens. References

Becken, S., B. Mackey and D. Lee (2023), “Implications of preferential access to land and clean energy for Sustainable Aviation Fuels”, Science of The Total Environment, Vol. 886, p. 163883, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.163883. [27] European Commission (2026), Tourism Satellite Accounts in Europe – 2026 edition, https://doi.org/10.2785/1839533. [6] European Commission (2025), EU Tourism Dashboard, https://tourismdashboard.ec.europa.eu/?lng=en&ctx=tourism. [10]

https://doi.org/10.2785/1839533. [6] European Commission (2025), EU Tourism Dashboard, https://tourismdashboard.ec.europa.eu/?lng=en&ctx=tourism. [10] European Travel Commission (2025), Future proofing European tourism through scenario planning and strategic foresight, https://etc-corporate.org/reports/futureproofing-europeantourism-through-scenario-planning-and-strategic-foresight/. [15] International Transport Forum (2024), “Decarbonising Aviation: Exploring the Consequences”, in International Transport Forum Policy Papers, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://www.itfoecd.org/sites/default/files/docs/decarbonising-aviation-exploring-consequences.pdf. [25] OECD (2026), Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs 2026: An OECD Scoreboard, https://doi.org/10.1787/075d8058-en. [19] OECD (2025), AI adoption by small and medium-sized enterprises: OECD discussion paper for the G7, https://doi.org/10.1787/426399c1-en. [16] OECD (2025), “Building strong and resilient tourism destinations”, OECD Tourism Papers, No. 2025/03, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/a57c343d-en. [3] OECD (2025), Enhancing the enabling environment for micro and small tourism enterprises in Greece, OECD Publishing, https://doi.org/10.1787/48b4382b-en. [21] OECD (2025), Guidance to design and implement an enhanced governance model for tourism in Italy, OECD Publishing, https://doi.org/10.1787/9510a3f9-en. [2] 59

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OECD (2025), Measuring the economic impact of tourism in Greece: Guidance and action plan,

[2] 59

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OECD (2025), Measuring the economic impact of tourism in Greece: Guidance and action plan, https://doi.org/10.1787/52f3c5e9-en. [4] OECD (2025), Measuring the economic impact of tourism in Malta: Guidance and action plan, https://doi.org/10.1787/48fab892-en. [5] OECD (2025), OECD platform on financing SMEs for sustainability, https://www.oecd.org/en/about/programmes/oecd-platform-on-financing-smes-forsustainability.html. [29] OECD (2025), Unleashing SME Potential to Scale Up: Helping SMEs Scale Up, OECD Publishing, https://doi.org/10.1787/ea948a58-en. [18] OECD (2025), Using alternative data sources and tools to measure and monitor tourism, OECD Publishing, https://doi.org/10.1787/09ad7240-en. [8] OECD (2024), “Artificial Intelligence and tourism: G7/OECD policy paper”, OECD Tourism Papers, No. 2024/02, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/3f9a4d8d-en. [12] OECD (2024), “Creating economic prosperity through inclusive and sustainable tourism: G7/OECD policy priorities paper”, OECD Tourism Papers, No. 2024/01, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/f0a49ca9-en. [23] OECD (2024), OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2024, OECD Publishing, https://doi.org/10.1787/80885d8b-en. [1] OECD (2021), “Managing tourism development for sustainable and inclusive recovery”, OECD

[7] UN Tourism (2025), Global Tourism Plastics Initiative: Annual progress report 2024, UN Tourism, https://www.e-unwto.org/doi/10.18111/9789284426782. [28]60 

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UN Tourism (2024), Statistical Framework for Mesuring the Sustainability of Tourism, https://www.untourism.int/tourism-statistics/statistical-framework-for-measuring-thesustainability-of-tourism. [9] World Economic Forum (2025), Travel and tourism at a turning point, https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Travel_and_Tourism_at_a_Turning_Point_2025.pdf. [14] 61

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Tourism plays an important role in shaping the economic prosperity and supporting the well-being of local communities through jobs, income and investment. However, its impacts are not always evenly distributed and, if not well-managed, may place significant pressure on local infrastructure, services and residents. These dynamics are placing greater attention on how tourism’s benefits and costs are shared, and its overall value for host communities. This chapter examines the socio-economic impacts of tourism and highlights policy approaches to maximise local benefits while mitigating adverse impacts. It explores key challenges and trade-offs in managing tourism development and visitor flows, and considers how policies can strengthen local value creation, community engagement and evidence-based decision-making to support more balanced tourism. Key policy considerations are identified to more broadly share the benefits of tourism.

Chapter 3. Enhancing the social benefits of tourism62 

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Tourism is an important driver of economic growth and prosperity; it is also an important social

of tourism.

Chapter 3. Enhancing the social benefits of tourism62 

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Tourism is an important driver of economic growth and prosperity; it is also an important social phenomenon, involving the movement of people across different countries and cultures. Tourism spurs job creation and fosters innovation, as local entrepreneurs and businesses seize new opportunities to meet the needs of tourists, contributing to vibrant local economies and enhancing community services. Tourism also fosters social interactions, cultural exchange, and a sense of interconnectedness among people worldwide (OECD, 2024[1]). This makes tourism well placed to foster economic development that enhances well-being and social cohesion and contributes to making places more vibrant and liveable. However, while tourism brings benefits, it can also adversely impact the people and places tourists visit when not well managed. In recent years, issues such as overcrowding, infrastructure strain and stress on local communities have become pressing topics across many destinations. Tourism can disrupt community structures and local economies, driving up living costs for residents and fuelling gentrification in certain destinations. This can displace long-term residents, overwhelm local infrastructure, exacerbate environmental degradation, and heighten social tensions, ultimately undermining community cohesion and sustainability. Working conditions and informality in some countries also remain key areas of attention. The impacts from tourism, positive and negative, are often unbalanced, leading policymakers and local communities to increasingly question the value-added and social licence for tourism. Existing models of tourism development often mean the impacts of tourism are unevenly shared by tourists, businesses, destinations and local communities, with some destinations receiving visitor volumes that can place considerable strain on local communities, while others seek more visitor spending to support their local economy (OECD, 2024[2]). This has led to growing calls for more proactive policies and action to better manage tourism development, across all levels of government, as well as a stronger voice for local communities. This chapter seeks to improve the understanding of the positive and negative socio-economic impacts of

World Tourism underlined a commitment to involve communities in the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation processes of tourism policies (UN Tourism, 1997[6]). Tourism is recognised as a force for socio-economic development and poverty reduction (ILO, 2019[7]), and a healthy social and natural environment is seen as key for a thriving tourism sector (UNESCO, 2002[8]). More recently, OECD work has highlighted the importance of supporting balanced tourism and building the social license to support sustainable tourism development (OECD, 2024[2]; OECD, 2025[9]; OECD, 2021[4]) 63

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Balancing the socio-economic impacts of tourism is an increasing area of focus for policymakers at the highest levels. The G20 Rome Guidelines for the Future of Tourism endorsed by G20 Tourism Ministers under Italy’s 2021 G20 Presidency include a policy focus on widening community engagement and benefits from tourism (OECD, 2021[3]), while the 2025 South African G20 Presidency highlighted the importance of community-centred models to help share the benefits of tourism. Optimising the socio-economic impacts of tourism was a key area of focus for Italy’s 2024 G7 Presidency (OECD, 2024[1]). Meanwhile, the 2023 Palma Declaration by EU Tourism Ministers focuses on advancing social sustainability of tourism, including a model that benefits local populations, and promotes balanced tourism and opportunities for all. Work by the private sector has highlighted the importance of tourism as an accelerator for social progress (WTTC, 2021[10]), noting the importance of maintaining positive relationships with residents to preserve the local character and maintain tourism’s social licence to operate (World Economic Forum, 2025[11]), and calling for more advanced systems to manage and balance tourism impacts (The Travel Foundation, 2019[12]). Understanding the significant social impacts of tourism is important to foster tourism that brings economic and social prosperity. This includes better understanding how tourism generates value for destinations,

for infrastructure development in rural and remote regions, thereby strengthening local resilience. Beyond its economic footprint, tourism can contribute to wider societal goals by promoting well-being, building connections and acceptance between people and cultures, supporting economic diplomacy and peace building (OECD, 2024[1]). It can also foster community development and encourage the safeguarding of cultural and natural heritage. These goals are becoming increasingly important in tourism strategies and development plans. In countries like Australia and Canada, Indigenous tourism initiatives offer pathways for cultural revitalisation and supporting vibrant Indigenous opportunities. This includes targeted support for rural and Indigenous communities, strategic planning to manage visitor flows, and policies that ensure tourism revenues are reinvested locally. Challenges need to be addressed to support balanced tourism In addition to the wide range of benefits, tourism also brings its own set of socio-economic challenges. Tourism can give rise to tensions if the expectations and needs of tourists and locals come into conflict.64 

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Emerging destinations can struggle to attract tourists and the socio-economic benefits they bring. Addressing these socio-economic challenges is important to support tourism development and create destinations that are attractive and liveable for residents and tourists alike. An important issue is making sure the revenues and value generated by tourism benefit local businesses and communities. The complex nature of tourism, which is composed of many different sub-sectors and value chains, makes this process challenging. While some degree of revenue outflow from the destination where the tourism activity takes place is inevitable, the extent of this leakage can limit the positive impact of tourism for local communities, including its contribution to economic development and investment in infrastructure and services. This may be exacerbated if revenues are concentrated among a small number of large companies. This raises questions about how to encourage local sourcing of goods and services, and how to support the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in local and global tourism value chains. However, detailed analysis on tourism leakage is limited, making the scale of this challenge difficult to quantify. OECD work found that on average 89% of non-resident tourism expenditure

destinations and specific neighbourhoods of some EU cities can see substantially higher shares of short-term rentals. • For every entire short-term rental property listing recorded, there were 15 unoccupied dwellings i.e. vacant dwellings and those used occasionally or seasonally. About 0.7% of EU’s population live in municipalities where short-term rentals account for at least 10% of dwellings, whereas nearly 63% of the population live in municipalities where at least 10% of the dwellings are unoccupied. • Household growth outpaced population growth from 2011 to 2021 due to smaller household sizes: the EU’s population grew by 2.5% in cities and fell by 2% in rural areas, while the number of households in these locations increased by 9.5% and 10% respectively (European Commission, 2025[23]; European Commission, 2025[24]). Available evidence on the impact of short-term tourism rentals on the housing market is mixed, and knowledge gaps remain (Box 3.1). While it is likely that short-term tourism rental activity exacerbates existing pressures, the extent to which it is a main driver of observed housing issues in destinations is not clear. The key uncertainties are:

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• Establishing causality: It is difficult to establish cause-and-effect on the impact of short-term rentals on housing affordability for residents. Evidence from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre suggests a positive correlation between the share of short-term rentals and advertised selling price in EU municipalities (European Commission, 2025[23]). However, even when correlation between housing affordability and short-term rentals is found, potential explanations vary. Increased demand by tourists for short-term rentals may push up the prices, or alternatively it could be that more attractive and expensive neighbourhoods attract more tourists. • Interchangeability of housing supply: The extent to which properties are interchangeable between the short-term and long-term private rental sectors is also unclear. Evidence from Ireland shows

balance the trade-offs to optimise the socio-economic benefits while minimising the negative and unintended impacts. Destinations must consider several trade-offs in tourism development, including: • Type of tourism: promoting tourism with a mass appeal which tends towards high visitor volumes versus targeting niche tourism which emphasises higher quality experiences. • Seasonality: promoting year-round tourism, which may relieve pressure during peak periods versus concentrating activity in short, high demand periods followed by low pressure periods. • Distribution: concentrating tourism in popular areas, which can lead to overcrowding, versus distributing tourism across the territory, which spreads the benefits but also pressures. • Supply capacity: expanding tourism infrastructure (for example hotels and short-term rentals) to accommodate growth versus restricting development to stay within sustainable limits. • Pricing strategy: enhancing product quality through investments in sustainability versus maintaining price competitiveness to attract cost-conscious visitors. • Demand management: investing in marketing to attract visitors and foster a welcoming culture versus adopting measures to limit growth and protect local culture and the environment. 67

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• Sentiment management: promoting the benefits of tourism to improve public sentiment and image of tourism versus implementing restrictive measures to curb tourism development.

Many of the socio-economic impacts of tourism are highly localised, and context-specific considerations are important to balance these impacts. The same number of visitors can have very different impacts depending on the way they behave, when and where they arrive, as well as the nature of the destination and tourism offer, the availability of supporting local infrastructure, and the destination management capacity, resources and governance structures (OECD, 2024[2]). An influx of visitors can lead to significant pressures on fragile environments and heritage sites if concentrated in limited areas or specific seasons, while the same number dispersed more strategically may foster community resilience, economic vitality and sustainable development. Urban centres are likely to have better infrastructure and resources to cater to and capture the value from

breakdown allows for closer links with tourism satellite accounts as well as supply and use tables. Passenger services Passenger services cover the transport of people. This category covers all services provided in the international transport of non-residents by resident carriers (credit or international passenger transport 13

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receipts) and that of residents by non-resident carriers (debit or international passenger transport expenditure). Passenger services include fares and other expenditure related to the carriage of passengers, any