Restart tourism | build the future

Purpose This viewpoint aims to explore the question: How can we restart and monitor the path towards the tourism of the future? Design/methodology/approach This paper identifies the progress made at scientific, institutional, political and technological levels, and how it is possible to foresee that we will enter in a new era of tourism indicators. Findings A significant body of literature clearly demonstrates that tourism cannot be viewed simply from an economic point of view as it has a great influence on sociocultural and environmental dimensions. The impact of tourism and how to ensure its long-term success has been invoked for the last few decades, leading to the direct consideration of sustainability indicators in a wide array of scientific publications. However, despite significant advances, the lack of funding, lack of support or interest from the political community, bureaucracies or lack of methodological guidance and of technical skills along the entire value chain pose clear challenges to the development and adoption of wide data systems to support sustainable tourism policies. Originality/value The paper sheds light on the Portuguese position regarding the recovery of the tourism sector in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also highlights the commitment to knowledge and monitoring of sustainability in tourism, articulated at international level, and how this is essential in order to make progress and to overcome the challenges facing the sector. At the same time, it demonstrates how fundamental it is to identify solutions to boost the potential of tourism as an economic, social, environmental and cultural phenomenon.