TOURISM AS AN INTERNATIONAL TRADED SERVICE A GUIDE FOR MEASURING ARRIVALS AND ASSOCIATED EXPENDITURES OF NON-RESIDENTS WTO Department of Statistics and Economic Measurement of Tourism Madrid, September 2005 Table of contents Pages Presentation ............................................................................................................ 1-4 Acronyms Used ...........................................................................................................5 1. Why this Guide?............................................................................................ 7-27 1.A The growing need for better tourism statistics ...................................... 7-11 1.B. Expanding tourism statistics and improving tourism analysis: the catalyst role of the TSA................................................................. 12-15 1.C. Technical background of WTO’s proposals ........................................ 15-17 1.D. Integrating the observation of flows of visitors and tourism expenditure with other statistical frameworks .................................... 17-20 1.E. Reader’s Guide................................................................................... 20-27 2. International flow of travellers at national borders....................................... 28-65 2.A Overview...................................................................................................28 2.B Measuring the number of travellers at national borders and deriving tourism statistics: National practices................................................... 29-34 2.C On characterizing international traveller flows: WTO's proposals of Entry/Departure cards in perspective (1981-1997) ............................. 34-39 2.D Designing tourism statistics in a context of free movement of natural persons: 2005 WTO’s proposal for a new entry/departure (E/D) card ........................................................................................... 39-48 2.E Guidelines for the creation of the statistical universe of non-resident visitors ................................................................................................ 49-65 3. Characterizing international visitors: the basic core ...................................66-100 3.A Overview............................................................................................. 66-70 3.B The role of border surveys in tourism statistics................................... 70-71 3.C WTO’s model border survey proposal ................................................ 71-79 3.D Guidelines for its implementation.......................................................79-100 4. Characterizing international visitors: using modules for expanding analysis ....................................................................................................101-107 4.A Overview.................................................................................................101 4.B The possibility of using an expenditure module for non-resident visitors .............................................................................................102-107 ANNEXES 1. Developing the System of Tourism Statistics (STS): filling the information gaps .........................................................................................................109-110 2. GATS negotiations and WTO’s TSA pr oject ............................................111-112 3. Responses to and Comments on the “Comparative study of international experiences in the measurement of traveller flows at national borders” /2003-2004...............................................................................................113-193 4. Preparatory workshop to the II Forum on the tourism satellite account project for Central America ......................................................................195-201 5. “Mirror statistics” in the European Union .........................................................203 6. Questionnaire used in WTO’s “Comparative study of international experiences in the measurement of traveller flows at national borders” /2003-2004 ..............................................................................................205-230 7. Comparative analysis of methodologies...................................................231-245 8. General framework of reference...............................................................247-261 9. Recalling previous trips and the expenditures associated with them .......263-266 10. The travel group as a new analysis unit ..........................................................267 11. Dealing with Unknown Reference Populations in Border Surveys on Inbound Tourism .................................................................................269-274 12. Adapting WTO’s model border proposals questionnaire ..........................275-276 13. Review of core tourism statistics – New Zealand Tourism Research Council .....................................................................................................277-278 Presentation Ever since the United Nations Statistical Commission approved the Recommendations on Tourism Statistics, promoted by WTO, at its 27th period of sessions in 1993, the volume of transnational tourist flows has not stopped growing. In most countries, tourism has not, until now, gained proper recognition, nor the political and popular support it merits partly because the analysis of tourism has for a long time focused on the characteristics of visitors, the conditions in which they travelled and stayed, the purpose of visit, etc., and did not provide an easily recognizable link with the rest of the economy. Now, thanks to the existence of the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), it is possible to foster increasing awareness of the role that tourism plays and can play directly, indirectly or through induced effects, in an economy in terms of generation of value added, employment, government income, etc. The TSA, a statistical instrument whose design was approved by the United Nations Statistical Commission in 2000, is a “satellite” to the concepts, definitions and aggregates of the System of National Accounts (SNA93) allowing for valid comparisons of tourism with other industries, from country to country and between groups of countries, as well as an analysis of tourism integrated with that of other economic activities. The TSA is not only a framework for the integration of economic information on tourism, but also an instrument that may be used to monitor statistical development and to indicate, for instance, which sources should be improved and which should be developed further in order to supplement the statistical data already available. The aim of this Guide is to address the need to improve the statistical base relating to tourism, but instead of referring to an entire set of initiatives needed to articulate a System of Tourism Statistics (http://www.world- tourism.org/statistics/tsa_project/STS.pdf), it limits itself to the following four specific aspects of such a system, which are relevant regardless of whether or not a country decides to move towards the implementation of a TSA: - the measurement, mainly by migration authorities, of the total number of travellers entering a country and their relevant characteristics, and their statistical use for tourism analysis, the estimation of the balance of payments, and GATS (free movements of individuals); - the structuring of a statistical universe of non-resident visitors, whether using information obtained from entry/departure(E/D) cards, or combining information of an administrative nature with statistical surveys; 1 - the design and implementation of a border survey with the objective of identifying different characteristics of the trip and of the traveller, which, aside from addressing the specific needs of NTAs, makes it possible to generate statistical data for other fields of analysis, as already mentioned; - lastly, the use of modules in such a border survey to identify specific aspects of traveller behaviour that, in order to be properly estimated, require a set of interlinked questions, a case in point being the estimation of tourism expenditure. This Guide is the result of an ambitious international cooperation project, initiated in 2001 by the Department of Statistics and Economic Measurement of Tourism of WTO and revolving around two essential subject areas in the System of Tourism Statistics (STS): international tourist arrivals and tourism expenditure associated with such arrivals. 1 It fits into the framework of the overall guidelines for action that, in WTO’s view, should direct the future work of National Tourism Administrations (NTAs) in statistical matters, as set out in the document “General Guidelines for National Tourism Administrations (NTAs) relative to the development of the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA)”, published in February 2002. Among the priority tasks it describes, there are two that are especially noteworthy in the present context: - “obtaining, on a regular basis, comprehensive data on foreign visitor arrivals through the various points of access to the country, and which can be associated with, at least, the following visitor characteristics: point of entry, visitor typology, country of residence, purpose of trip, duration of stay, type of accommodation used and main destination”; and - “to boost cooperation with the authorities responsible for border controls and, if necessary, with the various traffic regulation bodies, with a view