Environmental sustainability measurement in the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index: An empirical analysis of its reliability

Results show that the original index is not reliable as most of the variables are weakly correlated. A simplified version of the original index is obtained by exploratory factor analysis and tested by confirmatory factor analysis. Measures of reliability show that the new index called TTESI - Travel & Tourism Environmental Sustainability Index - is reliable. Results also show that combining data from different sources (e.g., survey data and physical measurements) proves problematic. A z-score value for each country was computed and countries were ranked based on the TTESI. Additionally, the new index is more in line with the HDI - Human Development Index - and can therefore be integrated more easily in an overall index of sustainable development.