Tourism Statistics

Tourism, like any other industry, needs to be measured.

Without measurement it is impossible to assess the success of a marketing campaign, changing consumer demographics, impacts of the global economy, and so on. Without measurement, tourism cannot be developed in a controlled and structured way. Without measurement it is not possible to build a successful and flourishing tourism sector.

The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has established the international standards concerning the concept and definition of tourism and the main variables that characterise it and ensures they are in line with Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) recommendations.

Acorn specialises in the collection and interpretation of tourism statistics, and we always comply with recommendations made by UNWTO. This leads to consistency on a global scale as well as ensuring that the countries we work with develop a solid tourism statistical infrastructure.

What is Tourism?

Tourism comprises the activities of persons travelling to and staying in places outside of their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes

There are 3 Forms of Tourism…

Domestic Tourism: residents of a country travelling (as visitors) only within that country.

Inbound Tourism: non-residents of a country travelling (as visitors) to that country.

Outbound Tourism: residents of a country travelling (as visitors) to other countries.

These three basic forms of tourism can be combined in various ways to derive…

The 3 Categories of Tourism

Internal tourism: which comprises domestic and inbound tourism

National tourism: which comprises domestic tourism and outbound tourism

International Tourism: which comprises inbound tourism and outbound tourism

Basic Tourism Units

All types of travellers engaged in tourism are described as visitors. Therefore the term "visitor" represents the basic concept for the whole system of tourism statistics.

For the purpose of tourism statistics and in conformity with the basic forms of tourism, visitors are classified as:

International visitors: any person who travels to a country other than that in which s/he has his/her usual residence but outside his/her usual environment for a period not exceeding 12 months and whose main purpose of visit is other than the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the country visited.

Domestic visitor: any person residing in a country, who travels to a place within the country, outside his/her usual environment for a period not exceeding 12 months and whose main purpose of visit is other than the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited.

International and domestic visitors include:

Tourists: these are visitors who stay at least one night in a collective or private accommodation.

Same-day visitors: these are visitors who do not spend the night in a collective or private accommodation.

Usual environment: the usual environment of a traveller typically consists of the area of 80 kilometres radius around his/her place of residence plus all other places s/he visits more than once a week (although this can vary from country to country depending on the mobility of the population).

Tourism Expenditure

Tourism expenditure is the total consumption expenditure made by a visitor or on behalf of a visitor for and during his/her trip and stay at the destination.

International tourism receipts: expenditure of international inbound visitors, including their payments to national carriers for international transport. It includes any other prepayments made for goods/services received in the places visited.

International tourism expenditure: expenditure of outbound visitors in other countries including their payments to foreign carriers for international transport.

Domestic tourism expenditure: expenditure of domestic (resident) visitors travelling within the country they live. It includes any prepayments made for good/services received on the trip, and any travel-related expenditure made in the place of residence when returning from the trip.

Measuring Tourism Effectively

With over 10 years experience designing and establishing systems of tourism statistics and tourism statistics databases, in 2009 Acorn Tourism Consulting Ltd developed T-STATS - an online tourism statistics database that can be adapted to individual user's needs.

T-STATS is an indispensable tool for tourism departments, tourist boards, destination management organisations, national parks, and other bodies responsible for visitor destinations. It includes facilities to collect and process visitor arrivals and expenditure data, accommodation statistics, visitor surveys, business barometers, visitor attraction data, and a range of other visitor economy related information such as festival and events attendance, retail and tourism information centre footfall, and even the weather.

T-STATS' strength lies in its versatility and its ability to bring together all the disparate data that relates to the visitor economy. It can be accessed from any computer that connects to the Internet with a user identification and password. Therefore it is possible to share data with other users, such as the private sector, tourist board members, and other providers and users of tourism statistics.