Sustainable Tourism Production and Consumption as Constituents of Sustainable Tourism GDP: Lessons from a Typical Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW)

Based on the New Economics trend, only sustainable income should be regarded as a genuine income. The conventionally measured income through GDP is neither sustainable nor genuine. The Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) incorporates all aspects of income generation and or income destruction in a triple-level consideration: economy, environment and society. In this chapter, I propose transferring this logic to the measurement of tourism income, as part of national GDP. Many countries boast high percentages of tourism GDP, with subsequent direct, indirect and induced effects. However, there is a question of how much of that income is sustainable and genuine and how much cost that income incurs during the process of its generation and consumption. This chapter attempts transferring the paradigm of the ISEW as a proxy for sustainable GDP into a tourism ISEW as a proxy for sustainable tourism GDP.