The production of statistical data in the tourism sector is extremely wide and the digital transformation has certainly favored the collection of data from different sources. One example of a popular data source is social media, which is used by tourists to communicate, find or deliver relevant information. There has long been a plethora of data on tourism but turning it into useful information and using it to inform wise decisions have been a persistent challenge.
The huge amount of data has stimulated the scientific community of the SIS-SVQS group in the use of exploratory and predictive statistical techniques in order to analyze the data and support the decision-making processes for a more aware action. Similarly, great emphasis has given to statistical models aimed at interpreting performance in private sector (e.g. tourist satisfaction and service quality) and public sector (e.g. policy evaluation and performance assessment).
Among the branches of tourism, sustainable tourism has understandably gained traction in recent years. Sustainable tourism is not only about achieving economic purposes, but about also assessing environmental and social dimensions with the focus on mitigating or remediating environmental, social and economic impacts. This type of tourism also has an important role in the achievement of the 2030 Agenda of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Considering the large playing field of sustainable tourism, big data could be an alternative input to measure sustainability. In this context, the construction of composite indicators can be a practical option for objective assessment of the quality of policy actions.