UN Tourism and easyJet holidays advance partnership for ESG
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According to the latest UN Tourism data, international tourist arrivals have returned to 96% of pre-pandemic levels, with full recovery likely by the end of the year. With further growth anticipated, there is a pressing need to look beyond economic impacts of the sector and measure metrics relating to environmental dependencies, community impact, employee wellbeing and much more.
However, the sector currently lacks a unified Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting framework, making it difficult for tourism companies and stakeholders to measure, compare, and meaningfully communicate their sustainability efforts and impacts.
Scaling up support for ESG
To address this, UN Tourism, in collaboration with the University of Oxford (Oxford SDG Impact Lab), has been developing the first harmonised ESG Framework for Tourism Businesses. easyJet holidays has been part of the project from its inception and is now scaling up its support to accelerate the next critical phases.
Through this strategic partnership, easyJet holidays will play a key role in supporting the research and development of the ESG Framework, including pilot testing with companies worldwide, stakeholder engagement and organisation of awareness initiatives.
UN Tourism Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili said: “UN Tourism is proud to be working with easyJet holidays to address the vital need for a clear, consistent ESG Framework for our sector. As we rollout this out, such public-private collaboration play a key role in scaling up our efforts to better understand and manage tourism’s impacts at every level.”
Garry Wilson, easyJet holidays’ Chief Executive Officer, said: “We’re extremely proud to continue our partnership with UN Tourism, as a founding partner in developing the first consistent ESG framework for the tourism industry. We strongly believe in the power of collaboration, between the public and private sector, as an important and effective driver of achieving our Sustainable Development Goals. We’re committed to continuing to engage many of our partners in supporting this project, to drive meaningful change in ensuring tourism has a positive impact on the people and places that make holidays so special.”
Collaborative effort and common statistics framework
The development of the ESG Framework is being guided by extensive research, with input from nearly 600 tourism companies worldwide to date. This comprehensive approach ensures that the Framework addresses the real-world challenges and opportunities facing the sector.
The ESG Framework aligns closely with UN Tourism’s Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism (SF-MST), endorsed by the United Nations Statistical Commission with unanimous support from all 193 UN Member States. MST establishes fundamental concepts, definitions, data structures and indicators for assessing tourism sustainability from the international to the local levels. The ESG Framework extends these principles to businesses, fostering greater alignment between public and private sector data.
