Why UN's SDG Goals Are Missing their Targets

Abstract

Although 90% of the declarations of international tourism organizations refer to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), only 55% of these organizations tackle these goals in their missions or aims. The stark disconnect between promises on paper and real action demonstrates an essential crisis in the sustainability of tourism, which consists mainly of unfulfilled promises.Despite the membership of 159 countries in the World Tourism Organization to promote responsible and sustainable tourism, there is a huge gap between the promises and project. In fact, our analysis of 88 tourism sustainability studies reveals challenges for sustainability in tourism, where there is no clear possibility of concrete reports towards the UN’s 2030 Agenda goals or progress towards measurable continuity in them.Taking a closer look into the situation of sustainable tourism throughout the world from global destinations, we investigated the status of the implementation of SDGs by multiple tourism organizations. And in this comprehensive investigation we found the reason how sustainability initiatives in tourism do not achieve the desired results, where the failure is systemic and we, more importantly, how the industry can reorient itself to prevent itself from getting to the point where it's already too late.