As of 2017, mountains were home to about 1.1 billion people, representing around 15% of the global population. Mountains are also among the most fragile ecosystems, which are under threat from climate change and overexploitation.
When managed in a sustainable manner, tourism has proved to be a lifeline for many communities in mountain regions and can play a leading role in protecting these fragile ecosystems. Many mountain destinations showed particular resilience during the pandemic, as visitors looked for less crowded destinations and open-air experiences, amid global lockdowns. At the same time, other mountain destinations with traditionally more tourism traffic suffered from the lack of visitors which impacted their economies and livelihoods.
As the sector recovers from the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an opportunity to rethink mountain tourism and its impact, to manage it better, and to harness its contribution towards a more resilient, inclusive and sustainable future for mountains and its communities.
One of the recommendations emerging from the 2021 report Mountain tourism _– Towards a more sustainable path _(by the Mountain Partnership and UNWTO) highlighted the need to improve the measurement and monitoring of the impact of tourism in mountains, making a special emphasis on lack of data to quantify mountain tourism at regional and global level.
This new joint study Understanding and quantifying mountain tourism, aims to shed light on the volume that mountain tourism represents globally and in the different world regions. It also looks into current trends in mountain tourism and contribute to improve its measurement as a means of better planning and management of its benefits and impact in mountain areas.
Given the limited data on domestic mountain tourism performed by residents, estimates are provided for the share of mountain tourism in international tourism only.
Mountain tourism is estimated to represent between 9% and 16% of total international tourist arrivals, which is equivalent to a range of between 195 and 375 million international arrivals, based on 2019 numbers.
The range shows differences across regions and countries. In countries where mountain tourism is a primary motivation of visit and where there is a higher tourism concentration and specialized product offer, the share is also higher in the total of international tourism. In other destinations, with large mountain ranges, the share of mountain tourism vis-a-vis total inbound is less important due to a more diversified tourism offer or an early stage of mountain tourism development, or due to a higher weight of domestic demand in mountain tourism.
As of 2017, mountains were home to about 1.1 billion people, representing around 15% of the global population. Mountains are also among the most fragile ecosystems, which are under threat from climate change and overexploitation.
When managed in a sustainable manner, tourism has proved to be a lifeline for many communities in mountain regions and can play a leading role in protecting these fragile ecosystems. Many mountain destinations showed particular resilience during the pandemic, as visitors looked for less crowded destinations and open-air experiences, amid global lockdowns. At the same time, other mountain destinations with traditionally more tourism traffic suffered from the lack of visitors which impacted their economies and livelihoods.
As the sector recovers from the unprecedented impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an opportunity to rethink mountain tourism and its impact, to manage it better, and to harness its contribution towards a more resilient, inclusive and sustainable future for mountains and its communities.
One of the recommendations emerging from the 2021 report Mountain tourism _– Towards a more sustainable path _(by the Mountain Partnership and UNWTO) highlighted the need to improve the measurement and monitoring of the impact of tourism in mountains, making a special emphasis on lack of data to quantify mountain tourism at regional and global level.
This new joint study Understanding and quantifying mountain tourism, aims to shed light on the volume that mountain tourism represents globally and in the different world regions. It also looks into current trends in mountain tourism and contribute to improve its measurement as a means of better planning and management of its benefits and impact in mountain areas.
Given the limited data on domestic mountain tourism performed by residents, estimates are provided for the share of mountain tourism in international tourism only.
Mountain tourism is estimated to represent between 9% and 16% of total international tourist arrivals, which is equivalent to a range of between 195 and 375 million international arrivals, based on 2019 numbers.
The range shows differences across regions and countries. In countries where mountain tourism is a primary motivation of visit and where there is a higher tourism concentration and specialized product offer, the share is also higher in the total of international tourism. In other destinations, with large mountain ranges, the share of mountain tourism vis-a-vis total inbound is less important due to a more diversified tourism offer or an early stage of mountain tourism development, or due to a higher weight of domestic demand in mountain tourism.
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