The Global Destination Sustainability Index (GDS-Index) unveils its 2025 Top 40 rankings, marking a decade of pioneering destination sustainability benchmarking. This year’s theme, Shifting Tides, reflects a period of global transition during which destinations demonstrate remarkable resilience and accelerated action.
The 2025 GDS-Index celebrates ten years of progress, revealing a 31% increase in average performance across all participating destinations since the programme began, with a remarkable 46% rise in the Top 10’s performance. In a year still shaped by economic uncertainty, destinations have had to practise resilience to maintain momentum.
The 2025 Leadership Destination: Helsinki
For the second year running, Helsinki leads the GDS-Index with a score of 93.52%, cementing its role as a sustainable and regenerative tourism and events leader. The city’s path includes ending its coal era for good and becoming the first major European capital to earn a Green Destinations certification. This commitment extends to visitors, with near-universal sustainability certification across its tourism infrastructure: 99% of hotel rooms (in properties with more than 50 rooms), 100% of convention centres, and 80% of top attractions are now third-party certified. Underpinning this is a robust climate action plan for tourism that focuses on measuring emissions and preparing for future risks.
Nina Vesterinen, Tourism Director, City of Helsinki, said: “We are so happy with this result because Helsinki invests substantially in sustainable development, and this recognition reaffirms our right direction.”
Guy Bigwood, CEO and Chief Changemaker at GDS-Movement, said: “Every destination featured in the GDS-Index has demonstrated leadership and commitment – each one deserving recognition for its efforts to build a more regenerative future. As we mark the 10th year of the GDS-Index – with 626 benchmarking assessments completed across 35 countries since 2016 – one thing has remained constant: the courage of this community to lead with vision and to innovate with purpose. From shifting seasonality to changing governance and a pushback against sustainability, members of the movement meet each wave with intention, creativity, and a fierce resolve to do better, faster, together. It’s not just about riding the wave, it’s about learning how to read it, shape it, and surf it to make it count.”
The full 2025 GDS-Index report, including the complete Top 40 ranking and detailed regional analysis, is available for download at https://www.gds.earth/reports/ and https://www.gds.earth/index/ranking-results/.
