Research from the University of Exeter is being used to enhance the world’s only annual sustainability tourism and events benchmark. The GDS-Index is a performance improvement programme to assess and accelerate the progress of a destination’s regenerative journey across four interconnected areas, including environmental, social, supplier and destination management performance.
It measures, benchmarks, and enhances the sustainability strategies, action plans, and initiatives of approximately 100 destination management organisations, municipal authorities, and their tourism supply chains.
A mapping tool, developed by University of Exeter researchers, helps transform the GDS-Index by showing how the 76 criteria in 2024 used to measure cities’ performance – ranging from waste management to air quality and transportation – are interconnected. The GDS-Index Systems Map shows destinations how specific actions may create knock-on effects across environmental, social, supplier and destination management areas.
This information, detailed in a white paper, is intended to empower cities to make more effective decisions for a more sustainable visitor economy, helping tourism organisations, their partners and supply chains to navigate trade-offs and see where their resources are best focused to make the biggest impact.
Guy Bigwood, CEO of the GDS-Movement, said: “We’re very pleased to offer this research in partnership with our esteemed academic partners at the University of Exeter. This white paper turns sustainability measurement into a powerful strategic matrix. By showing how actions connect across the system, it helps destinations prioritise effort where it can deliver the greatest, shared impact.
“Efficiency is key to sustainability practice, and it’s made much more manageable through this valuable work.”
Authors Dr Jose Melenez‐Roman and Christopher Kwesi from the University of Exeter Business School, added in a statement: “For too long, sustainability in tourism has been treated as a checklist. This research proves that performance is an ecosystem. By mapping the hidden architecture of the GDS-Index, we are giving destination leaders evidence-based tools to identify leverage points and act with greater clarity and confidence to drive systemic regeneration across their cities.”
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