SUMMARY
For the past ten years, GDS-Movement (Global Destination Sustainability) has published a ranking of the 40 most sustainable cities in tourism, known as the GDS-Index.
GDS-Movement is an international organization that accompanies cities and regions towards a sustainable transformation based on regenerative tourism.
The GDS-Index is an international program for assessing and improving the sustainable performance of destinations worldwide. It uses 76 indicators to assess the sustainability of destinations, taking into account the environmental, managerial and social performance of cities, as well as that of suppliers to the tourism sector.
Some key elements of GDS-Index 2025, whose report can be found here:
- Helsinki in Finland remains the leading city for the second year running, with a score of 93.52%. The city is first in three of the four GDS-Index pillars: environmental performance, social progress and supplier performance. The destination was therefore awarded the Leadership Prize.
- The city ofAdelaide in Australia wins the Best Progress Award. In its second year in the GDS-Index, the city saw its score rise by 14.1 percentage points to 61.5% and fifty-fourth place.
- Lyon is the leading French destination with a score of 84.4%, moving up seven places to eighth place worldwide.
- The gap between the number one and number forty destinations has narrowed in 2025, indicating overall progress and a homogenization of sustainable solutions within the ranking.
The Innovation Award and the Impact Award will be revealed at the GDS-Forum in June 2026.
Keywords: benchmark, Copenhagen, climate, assessment, GDS-Index 2025, Gothenburg, impact, MICE, performance, report, regenerative, tourism, global tourism, trend, sustainable.
Illustration: GDS-Movement (c)
Ranking of the 40 best-performing destinations :
Classification according to the 4 GDS Index categories :
