TEHRAN – Aimed to boost sustainable tourism in rural areas, UN Tourism has launched the UN Tourism Self-assessment Tool to Assist Rural Destinations, known as STAR.

This innovative tool empowers local public authorities in rural destinations to evaluate their level of tourism development and receive tailored recommendations to enhance their tourism policies and practices.

The STAR tool, available to all rural destinations in UN Tourism Member States, allows local authorities to measure their tourism development comprehensively.

According to the UN body, it offers insights into areas such as tourism governance, economic, social, and cultural sustainability, environmental sustainability, tourism development, and infrastructure.

Through a robust self-assessment framework, STAR helps stakeholders focus on strategic planning, marketing, training, policy-making, product diversification, environmental and cultural preservation, collaboration with local actors, and more.

Zurab Pololikashvili, Secretary-General of UN Tourism, heralded the tool's launch as a pivotal moment for rural tourism development. “The UN Tourism Self-assessment Tool is a game-changer for rural destinations. It empowers local authorities with a tool that allows them to self-evaluate their policies and actions, providing actionable insights fostering sustainable tourism development, and contributing to the overall growth of rural communities,” Pololikashvili stated.

Key features 

Self-Assessment: Rural destinations can evaluate their policies and initiatives across five critical areas, enabling a comprehensive understanding of their tourism development status.

Tailored Recommendations: Users receive a customized guide with recommendations aligned with UN Tourism standards, considering the unique attributes of each rural destination.

Benchmarking Excellence: The tool facilitates the benchmarking of policies and practices, allowing local authorities to evaluate their performance against other destinations.

Data and Insights: The digital tool provides extensive data and analytics, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of local tourism policies and strategies, and offering a foundation for improvement.

With STAR, UN Tourism continues to support the advancement of rural tourism, ensuring that rural communities worldwide can thrive through sustainable and well-managed tourism practices.

AM