The proposed panel session, “Tourism and New Data Sources”, responds directly to the growing recognition of tourism as a key driver of economic development, employment, and local well-being across Europe and beyond, alongside rapidly evolving user needs at European, national, and regional levels. As acknowledged by the Directors General of the National Statistical Institutes (DGINS), tourism statistics must adapt to a changing reality in which traditional indicators and data collection methods are no longer sufficient to capture the full complexity of tourism phenomena. The panel aims to bring together leading perspectives on how innovative data sources and methodologies can support the modernisation of official tourism statistics for the 21st century. Moving beyond the traditional measurement of physical tourism flows—such as trips and overnight stays—the discussion will focus on better capturing the economic dimension of tourism, its interaction with labour markets, its impacts on local communities, and its environmental footprint. These aspects are increasingly central to policy design, sustainability monitoring, and evidence-based decision-making. A core theme of the panel is the recognition that survey-based data collection methods are reaching their limits, both in terms of respondent burden and their capacity to deliver timely, granular, and multidimensional insights. In this context, DGINS has stressed the need to continuously explore and prioritise alternative data sources and innovative production methods. Panelists will present experiences and methodological approaches using new data sources—such as accommodation platform data, mobile network operator data, visitor registration systems, and financial transaction data—often integrated through multi-source frameworks that enhance relevance, timeliness, and spatial and temporal detail while preserving comparability and statistical quality. The panel will also address the importance of enriching tourism statistics through closer integration with other domains of official statistics, including business statistics, labour market statistics, national accounts, balance of payments, environmental statistics, and environmental-economic accounts. Such integration is essential for developing balanced indicators covering the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of tourism, and for supporting internationally recognised frameworks such as Tourism Satellite Accounts. Harmonisation of concepts and methodologies, where feasible, will be discussed as a means to better reflect tourism-specific user needs. Furthermore, the session will consider the institutional and governance implications of this transformation, including the need for an updated legal and methodological framework that facilitates the optimal use of alternative data sources, reduces administrative burden, and balances emerging priorities with resource constraints. Finally, the panel will highlight the importance of international coordination with key partners such as UN Tourism and the OECD to ensure coherence, comparability, and shared progress in the development of tourism statistics. Overall, the panel will provide a forward-looking and practice-oriented forum on how new data sources can reshape tourism statistics to better serve policymakers, researchers, and society at large.