For decades, the success of a tourist destination was measured by a single, blunt metric: the number of arrivals. Whether visitors stayed for a weekend or a month, whether they spent €50 or €5,000, the only thing that mattered was that the tally kept climbing. That approach is now being challenged, as cities from Amsterdam to Dubrovnik grapple with overcrowding, and as climate change makes the environmental cost of mass tourism impossible to ignore.
In response, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has introduced a new set of tools designed to provide a more nuanced picture of what tourism actually delivers. The Power, Efficiency & Opportunity (PEO) Indices, launched this month, evaluate countries on three fronts: the sheer economic scale of their tourism sector, its environmental footprint, and its contribution to employment and social development.
“Travel and tourism is one of the world’s most powerful sectors, and these new indices give us a broader and more holistic way to understand its impact,” said Gloria Guevara, WTTC president and CEO. “As the sector grows, we must focus on quality as well as quantity of growth. By assessing economic contribution, environmental efficiency and employment opportunities together, the indices provide valuable insights to support sustainable growth and informed decision-making.”
Power: who leads in sheer tourism muscle
The power index is the most straightforward of the three. It ranks countries by the absolute size of their tourism economy, including direct and indirect contributions to GDP, employment, and investment. Unsurprisingly, the top ten is dominated by the world’s largest economies: the United States, China, India, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Japan, Mexico, Spain, and Saudi Arabia. For Europe, this means that the continent’s biggest tourism earners—Germany, France, the UK, and Spain—still hold their own in global terms, but the index makes clear that raw scale is not the only measure of success.
Efficiency: doing more with less
The environmental efficiency index flips the focus from size to sustainability. It looks at greenhouse gas emissions, low-carbon energy use, water consumption, air pollution, and material use, all relative to the economic activity that tourism generates. In other words, it asks: how much environmental damage does each euro of tourism revenue cause?
Among high-income economies, Sweden tops the ranking, a testament to its investments in renewable energy and sustainable transport. For upper-middle-income countries, Costa Rica leads, thanks to its long-standing commitment to ecotourism and forest conservation. The index highlights that some of Europe’s most visited destinations—such as Italy, Greece, and Portugal—still have significant room to improve their efficiency, particularly in terms of energy use and waste management.
This is especially relevant as the EU rolls out its first sustainable tourism strategy, which aims to curb overtourism and promote more balanced travel patterns across the bloc. The WTTC’s efficiency metrics could become a key tool for policymakers in Brussels and national capitals alike.
Opportunity: tourism as a social engine
The third index, opportunity, measures how well tourism translates into decent jobs and social progress. It considers employment growth, youth employment, and female employment, recognising that tourism is often a first entry point into the labour market for young people and women.
Here, the rankings are more surprising. Croatia leads among high-income economies, reflecting the sector’s outsized role in the country’s labour market, particularly along the Adriatic coast. The Maldives tops the upper-middle-income group, while El Salvador and The Gambia lead their respective income brackets. The WTTC notes that in places like the Maldives, Grenada, and Belize, tourism supports a significant share of national employment, making the sector a vital lifeline for local communities.
For Europe, the opportunity index offers a reminder that tourism is not just about sun and sand. In countries like Croatia, Portugal, and Greece, tourism jobs are often the backbone of regional economies, particularly in areas that have few other employment options. The index also underscores the importance of ensuring that these jobs are quality jobs—with fair wages, social protection, and opportunities for advancement.
Rethinking success beyond arrival numbers
The launch of the PEO indices comes at a time when many European destinations are actively trying to move away from the “more is better” model. Off-season travel is being promoted to spread visitor numbers more evenly, and regions like Valencia are betting on sports tourism to attract visitors year-round. Even film tourism is being used to draw visitors to less-crowded parts of Britain.
The WTTC’s new framework is a clear signal that the industry’s global body is aligning with this shift. By measuring efficiency and opportunity alongside power, the indices encourage governments and businesses to think about tourism as a complex system, not just a numbers game. As Guevara put it, the goal is to support “sustainable growth and informed decision-making.”
For European travellers and policymakers, the message is clear: the future of tourism lies not in how many people cross a border, but in how well that movement serves both the visitor and the host. The PEO indices are a step towards making that vision measurable.
