Tourism can benefit mountains and their inhabitants, especially in Latin America

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the Mountain Partnership (AM) have published this Wednesday a report set to understand the potential of mountain tourism and identify the missing data regarding this sector.

The post too identifies trends and offers a series of recommendations to advance in the measurement of mountain tourism, including advances in official tourism statistics and the use of big data and new technologies.

Some 1.1 billion people live in the mountains, some of whom are among the poorest and most isolated in the world.

At the same time, the mountains have long attracted fans of hiking, climbing and winter sports. They also attract visitors for their spectacular landscapes, rich biodiversity, and vibrant local cultures.

However, in 2019, the most recent year for which figures are available, the 10 most mountainous countries (in terms of mean height above sea level) received only 8% of international tourist arrivals around the world, says the report, titled Understanding and quantifying mountain tourism.

“Measuring the volume of visitors to the mountains is the first vital step we must take. With the right data, we can better control the dispersion of tourist flows, support proper planning and create appropriate policies that promote sustainable development and that guarantee the benefit of local communities”, write in the foreword of the report the director-general of the FAO, QU Dongyu, and the secretary-general of the UNWTOZurab Pololikashvili.

Tourism has proven to be a lifeline for many communities in mountainous regions and can play a leading role in protecting livelihoods adapted to these fragile ecosystems, which face continuing threats from climate change and overexploitation.

As the sector recovers from the unprecedented consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an opportunity to rethink mountain tourism and its impact on natural resources and livelihoods, but also to manage it better and take advantage of their contribution towards a more resilient, inclusive and sustainable future.

Effective planning and management of mountain tourism requires a better understanding of its magnitude and its economic, social and environmental implications. To date, the available data is very limited.

Data and recommendations

The study aims to address this problem by developing a new methodology and providing as clear a picture as possible, based on available data and tailored surveys, of global and regional mountain tourism trends in Africa, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East.

Not all countries were included in the study, which is a follow-up to the 2021 publication, Mountain tourism, towards a more sustainable path. Instead, countries that were considered relevant for estimating global and regional volumes of mountain tourists were selected. In total, 46 countries were surveyed.

Based on the study methodology, it was estimated that in 2019 (latest data available) international mountain tourism would represent between 9% and 16% of international tourist arrivals worldwide, that is, between 195 and 375 million tourists. The scarcity of data related to national tourism did not allow estimating the contribution of this important segment.

The report also provides examples of innovative approaches to measuring mountain tourism and planning and managing its impacts.

Recommends a collective effort, involving public and private stakeholders from across the value chain, to improve the data collection, normalization and delivery in order to obtain a more comprehensive assessment of mountain tourism in terms of volumes and impacts, so that it can be better understood and developed to align with the Sustainable Development Goals.

The report also calls for a concerted effort to help raise awareness about the socioeconomic importance of mountain tourism and specific policies to create jobs, support small and medium-sized companies and attract green investments in infrastructure and digitization of tourism services.

Potential in Latin America and the Caribbean

The report offers figures by subregions to understand the potential of mountain tourism in each region and recommendations to develop sustainable tourism that benefits communities.

Thus, the estimated share of mountain tourism in international tourist arrivals, based on 2019 data, is between one and two million in the Caribbean, between three and five million in Central America and between seven and 12 million in Latin America. from the south.

Specifically, mountain tourism represented between 10 and 20% of international arrivals to Ecuador, between 20 and 40% of arrivals in Chile and Venezuela, and between 40 and 60% of visits to Nicaragua.

The Andes mountain range, which extends through numerous South American countries, is positioned as an important mountain tourist attraction throughout the region.

In Peru, for example, 78% of all international tourists did a hiking activity during their trip, and mountain tourism accounts for more than 60% according to the survey results.

In relation to winter sports, up to 35% of all skiers in Chile are foreigners, a figure that reaches 20% in the case of Argentina.