According to the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), the tourism industry in Asia was projected to lose $1.1 trillion in revenue in 2020, a decline of 66% compared to 2019, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This decline has a significant impact on the region’s economies, as tourism is a major contributor to GDP in many Asian countries. PATA also reported that international tourist arrivals to the Asia Pacific region fell by 82% in 2020, with the most severe declines recorded. Domestic travel also dropped significantly in many countries, as people avoided non-essential travel and followed government restrictions. The pandemic and the continuing travel restrictions are making it difficult for the tourism industry to recover, and it is expected that the recovery will be slow and uneven across the region.

Currently, the tourism sector faces various challenges that require a variety of skills to tackle them. Tourism-related CO2 emissions are a concern in face of climate change, because around 4,9% of global greenhouse gas emissions are attributed to tourism and are expected to increase twofold within 25 years. The negative impacts of tourism on the environment also include “strain on natural resources; pollution; and physical impacts, typically involving the degradation of ecosystems.” This requires more sustainable solutions, for whose development and implementation the promotion of green skills is essential. The importance of sustainable tourism, based on the three pillar model of ecologic, social and economic sustainability, has been widely acknowledged by the UN, including it in 3 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and in the definition of sustainable tourism by the UN Environment Program and UN World Tourism Organization as “tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities.”