The Sustainable Tourism Observatory at ATU (STORY@ATU) research group aims to help tackle the social, cultural, economic, and environmental challenges facing the tourism industry across the island of Ireland.  STORY@ATU is a collaboration between the three ATU campuses. It aims to build on new and existing partnerships with key stakeholders in local authorities, state agencies, tourism industry, enterprises and communities across the island and internationally to address local challenges and collaborate with national and international researchers on global solutions.

The impact of tourism on climate change urgently requires the data that will inform sustainable change built on established sustainable tourism indicators. Tourism destinations require the tools and skills to monitor their transition towards sustainable living and facilitate destination comparison, of evidence-based planning and management. STORY@ATU will offer decision-makers at all scales with critical real time data to facilitate evidence informed planning and decision-making.

The vision of STORY@ATU is to inform the development of a suite of actions to promote sustainable tourism. The data collected will underpin sustainable tourism policy, inform the proposed National Tourism Education Gateway and provide a toolkit for local authorities, state agencies, managers, community and enterprises to collect valuable data to better inform planning and management of sustainable tourism destinations.