OECD Tourism Trends and Policies is an international reference and biennial benchmark to support countries in driving sustainable and competitive tourism growth. The publication brings together internationally comparable data on tourism and highlights good practices and key policy and governance reforms. It also includes several topical and thematic chapters, and country-specific policy and statistical profiles for 53 OECD and partner countries.
The tourism sector has navigated and proven resilient to several shocks in recent years including the pandemic, natural disasters, economic pressures and rising geopolitical tensions, and stands at record levels in many OECD countries. The 2026 edition of OECD Tourism Trends and Policies comes as the sector’s resilience is again being tested by uncertainty and the conflict in the Middle East, which has disrupted global travel flows and pushed up transport and other costs. While the recent signing of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding is expected to help restore confidence, the situation remains fragile and travel patterns, at least in the near-term, may continue to be shaped by considerations around safety, potential disruptions, and affordability. These dynamics present challenges for businesses and destinations more broadly, but also potential opportunities as demand adjusts and reconfigures. At the same time, powerful technological, demographic and environmental trends continue to reshape how tourism is developed, managed and experienced.
These structural and contemporaneous dynamics underscore the need for flexible, co-ordinated and whole-of-government approaches, working with businesses and destinations, that reflect tourism’s strategic and cross-cutting nature and help reinforce the sector’s resilience, by improving its ability to anticipate and adapt to uncertainty. They also underscore the importance of more strategic approaches that seek to balance economic, social and environmental outcomes while strengthening competitiveness and resilience, which many governments are adopting. This is a core thread in this edition of OECD Tourism Trends and Policies, which includes dedicated chapters on enhancing the social benefits of tourism and the sector’s capacity to adapt to increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather-related events, while strengthening resilience and maintaining competitiveness. The report also highlights how governments and destinations are shifting toward more strategic, data-driven tourism management approaches, supported by renewed national tourism strategies, evolving governance arrangements, greater use of digital tools, and closer co-ordination across policy domains and levels of government to deliver on those goals.
This flagship publication was produced by the Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE) of the OECD, with co-financing from the European Union. The OECD Tourism Committee approved Chapter 1 on 17 June 2026, Chapter 2 on 27 May 2026, Chapters 3 and 4 on 3 April 2026, and the Country Profiles on 27 May 2026.