INCREASING THE USE OF TOURISM SATELLITE ACCOUNT DATA FOR BUSINESS AND POLICY

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INCREASING THE USE OF TOURISM SATELLITE ACCOUNT
DATA FORBUSINESS AND POLICY
INCREASING THE USE OF TOURISM SATELLITE ACCOUNT
DATA FORBUSINESS AND POLICY

• 9th International Forum on Tourism Statistics
• 21st November 2008, Paris

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OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT

• To look at the relevance and usability of TSA
  data
• To gather good examples of TSA uses in OECD
  member countries
• To contribute to a wider dissemination of
  TSA-based economic and social analyses at
  international, national and regional levels
• To promote a better use of TSA data for business
  and policy analysis

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CONCLUSIONS

• The TSA remains (largely) underused
• Policy and business users
• Limitations on TSA uses
• International comparability and economic
  divergences
• Despite all the demonstrated benefits for users
• Identification of the tourism sector
• Contribution of tourism to the economy
• Quality benchmark for tourism statistics
• To strengthen TSA role in policy/business, OECD
  suggests
• Further efforts to push the implementation
  ofTSARMF standard
• Greater involvement of stakeholders
• Efforts to communicate TSA data and policy
  messages
• Building TSA users capacity

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TSA USERS AND STAKEHOLDERS

• Wide range of public and private stakeholders
• - e.g. NTA, NTO, NSI, business and tourism
  associations, academic and research institutions,
  international organisations, etc.
• Tourism Policy Users
• - Guidance for policy decision-makers in their
  strategic choices, helping them to understand the
  importance of the tourism sector
• The TSA contributes vital information. The real
  value of the high-level TSA outputs is in firmly,
  and officially, establishing the role and
  contribution of tourism. The flow-through
  analysis in a wide range of areas (e.g. policy,
  central and local government planning for
  tourism, business development) flow from this
  core understanding. (New Zealand)

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TSA USERS AND STAKEHOLDERS

• Businesses and tourism associations are also
  important potential users of the TSA. The TSA is
  used
• To obtain knowledge on tourism industry
  developments
• For advocacy, media interactions and for speaking
  on behalf of their sector
• But business users still do not take full
  advantage of the TSA. The TSA could provide them
  with
• useful guidance for business action in tourism
• support business development and investment
  decision
• The TSA could be even more useful to business
  through its potential extensions (quarterly data,
  employment, indirect and induced impacts,
  specific industry extensions)

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LIMITATIONS ON TSA USE

• Lack of knowledge about the TSA
• Many possible users are a bit mystified by the
  TSA. The input-output concept is a new one to
  many tourism users. The benefits were probably
  not really apparent. (Ireland)
• The complexity of the TSA, its terminology,
  concepts and definitions, sources and methods
  creates challenges in terms of communicating
  clear messages to a general audience. (Canada)
• Timeliness
• The production of the TSA data can be considered
  as much too slow in relation to users needs.

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LIMITATIONS ON TSA USE

• Data at micro and business levels
• Main limitation is in terms of the level of
  detail at which analysis can be undertaken. Other
  limits relate to insufficient connections
  established with marketing, sustainability,
  investment and employment strategies.
• Divergences with other estimates
• Divergences between TSA estimates and other
  economic estimates of tourism are an urgent
  concern as they bring confusion in what the TSA
  is about
• TSA direct economic contribution of tourism
  versus direct indirect economic contribution.
  
• TSA national data coherence with regional TSA
  estimates
• TSA data versus simulated TSA data

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LIMITATIONS ON TSA USE

• International comparability still has to be
  strengthened
• International comparability (alignment with the
  TSA-RMF) is an important issue to consider from a
  tourism policy development perspective.
• Discrepancies have been underlined when TSA of
  different producers (competitors) are not
  similarly in line with the TSA-RMF.
• Among the main divergences are the definition of
  usual environment, the taking account of
  same-day visitors, the ways to calculate
  tourism GDP, etc.

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ESTIMATED BENEFITS FOR PRODUCERS AND USERS

• Identifying the tourism sector and industry
  analysis
• The TSA has contributed to an increased
  awareness of the roles of tourism and analysed
  various economic statistics relevant to tourism
• TSA has become a useful tool in order to provide
  extensive analyses that point out the small but
  essential role that tourism plays for the
  economy. TSA has crucially provided robust
  estimates for tourism, which prior to TSA did not
  exist in any credible sense. (Ireland)
• Assessing the contribution of tourism to the
  economy
• The key TSA aggregates are obviously those
  related to the contribution of tourism to the GDP
  and employment. Also important, from the supply
  point of view, are the data on the Gross Value
  Added of the tourism industries and, concerning
  the demand side variables, the different
  categories of tourism consumption." (Spain)

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ESTIMATED BENEFITS FOR PRODUCERS AND USERSn

• Assessing the relative importance of domestic
  tourism
• A major finding to emerge from the TSA project
  is the crucial importance of domestic tourism
  in the overall tourism marketplace. This first
  estimate suggests that this component is a very
  sizeable element (27.7 of total) of tourism
  demand and as such it is imperative that data
  collection methods be developed to monitor this
  vital component
• Quality benchmark for tourism statistics
• NSI underline the importance of the TSA to
  identify a number of data gaps and to force
  several sources to be confronted in a new way.

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Suggested recommendations

• the TSA must be regarded as a comprehensive
  statistical project, an important aspect of which
  being modularity.
• Continuing efforts to produce and disseminate
  the TSA data using internationally recommended
  standards
• Involving more stakeholders in the production and
  dissemination of TSA data and extensions
• Adapting and communicating TSA products to users
• Building TSA users capacity

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Communicating the TSA results

• The biggest mistake is perhaps over selling the
  TSA
• It is important that stakeholders know in
  advance the publication dates of forthcoming
  releases and to find mechanisms to involve key
  stakeholders in the process of developing a TSA
  and in the case of regional TSAs to involve
  regional tourism authorities (Canada)
• The TSA might be launched with a conference and
  a question and answer session, presenting
  concrete examples of what a TSA is, why it is
  useful and elaborating on the potential it offers
  for dynamic modelling (Ireland).
• Prior consultation with main users can provide
  advice regarding the relevant variables to be
  included (Spain)

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NEXT STEPS

• Further development of the analysis
• - TSA documentation, consultations with other
  stakeholders, other good examples of TSA usage,
  etc.
• - How the TSA usage can be improved and
  expanded for broader economic/policy goals
• Dissemination of the results to a wider audience
• - OECD website
• - UNWTO Conference on Tourism Statistics
• (Bali, Indonesia, 30 March/2 April 2009)
• - Forthcoming publication  Tourism in OECD
  countries Trends and Policies