The concern about the production of international standards to measure the sustainability of tourism is present today, especially the discourse on the introduction of new sources. This article aims to survey and describe the main approaches and methodologies to use big data to measure tourism sustainability. Successful cases are addressed by explaining the main opportunities and challenges for the creation of official tourist statistics. A comprehensive review of publications regarding this field was carried out by applying the systematic literature review technique. This contributes a knowledge base to destination management organisations to encourage the implementation of official tourism statistics systems using big data.

La heterogeneidad de las villas, las peculiaridades del territorio gallego y sus cambios recientes y la falta de definiciones que las engloben a todas dificultan su identificación. Sus características a nivel demográfico, económico, morfológico y funcional se han de comparar con las definiciones existentes con el fin de debatir sobre su significado y proponer una solución a las deficiencias identificadas.L’hétérogénéité des petites villes, les particularités du territoire galicien et le manque de définitions qui les englobent, rendent leur identification difficile. Leurs caractéristiques démographiques, économiques, morphologiques et fonctionnelles doivent être comparées aux définitions existantes afin de débattre de son sens et de proposer une solution aux carences identifiées.The heterogeneity of small towns, the peculiarities of the Galician territory and its recent changes as well as the lack of definitions that encompass all of them make difficult their identification. Their demographic, economic, morphological and functional characteristics must be compared with the existing definitions in order to debate its meaning and propose a solution to the identified deficiencies.