The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) has launched the GSTC Futures Lab for Sustainable Tourism, a new initiative aimed at strengthening the role of research, data, and evidence-based insights in advancing sustainable tourism globally.

The Futures Lab has been established to support GSTC’s mission of increasing knowledge, understanding, and adoption of sustainable tourism practices. Its focus is on translating research into practical and scalable solutions that can be applied by destinations, tourism businesses, and other stakeholders across the sector.

Its work will be guided by an annual research agenda, with methodologies and key findings made publicly available through the GSTC website. Clear data governance principles and peer-review processes will be applied to ensure credibility, consistency, and trust in research outputs.

In addition to research activities, the Futures Lab will play an important role in knowledge sharing and stakeholder engagement. Planned outputs include periodic reports, monitoring and evaluation publications, and the continued development of tools to showcase good practices from certified destinations and tourism enterprises.

The Futures Lab will also support academic and collaborative events, including the GSTC Academic Symposium, which provides a platform during GSTC’s Global Conferences for dialogue among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers and encourages collaboration across regions and disciplines.

The 4th GSTC Academic Symposium will be held in Phuket, Thailand, on April 21st,  just before the 2026 Global Sustainable Tourism Conference. This one-day in-person symposium will convene researchers, academics, and practitioners to engage in diverse dialogues on sustainability in tourism, following the same established methodology that has guided previous editions.

Core research areas of GSTC’s Futures Lab encompass impact measurement, innovation, and scalability, alongside ongoing contributions to the development and management of the GSTC Standards. And it will also support GSTC by designing and implementing surveys targeting members, certification bodies, and certified entities, thereby contributing to informed decision-making and organizational learning.

The GSTC Futures Lab is led by Dr. Mihee Kang, GSTC Chief Assurance Officer, and supported by a multidisciplinary team of research specialists and administrative staff. This structure enables the Futures Lab to respond flexibly to emerging research needs while maintaining high professional and academic rigor.

“Research plays a critical role in advancing sustainable tourism, but its value lies in how it is applied. The GSTC Futures Lab has been created to connect rigorous, evidence-based research with real-world practice, supporting destinations, businesses, and other stakeholders in translating knowledge into meaningful and measurable action.” Said Dr. Kang.

Through the launch of the Futures Lab for Sustainable Tourism, GSTC reinforces its mission and commitment to continuous improvement, supporting the global tourism sector in its transition toward more sustainable and responsible practices.