The first international standard in the tourism sector jointly promoted by the BRICS countries was released.
On January 29th, reporters learned from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism that the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) recently officially released the international standard "Sustainable tourism - Indicators for tourism value chain organizations - Requirements and guidance for use" (ISO 18060:2026). Under the organization and coordination of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, this standard was jointly proposed by China and Brazil. It was officially approved in 2022 and developed and released after more than three years. This is the first international standard in the tourism field jointly promoted by the BRICS countries under the framework of the BRICS cooperation mechanism.
The standard text consists of an introduction and seven chapters of technical content, mainly including the construction method of sustainable tourism indicators, relevant indicators in the environmental, social, and economic dimensions. ISO 18060 constructs a set of general, measurable, comparable and executable indicator frameworks from the three dimensions of environment, society and economy. It aims to improve the performance of various organizations in promoting sustainable development, contribute to the protection of destinations, meet the growing demand for responsible tourism practices, and promote the transformation of sustainable management from "what has been done" to "what results have been achieved".
Industry insiders believe that ISO 18060 is highly in line with the global sustainable development agenda and policy orientation. It not only helps enterprises strengthen their own sustainable management capabilities, but also provides a unified benchmark for comparison and analysis for the industry, promotes the collaboration and benchmarking management of the upstream and downstream of the tourism value chain, and enhances the governance capabilities of destinations and enterprises in terms of green transformation, social responsibility and tourism development resilience.
It is reported that in the next step, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism will promote the adoption of this international standard as a national standard, and encourage more tourism enterprises to participate in its implementation, so as to contribute to the sustainable development of the global tourism industry. (Xinhua News Agency)
