Resumen de The Canadian Tourism Satellite Account: a case study of a new tool for measuring tourism's economic contribution
The measurement of tourism's economic impact is of vital importance to governments and industry members alike. Governments throughout the world are under increasing pressure from the tourism industry to recognize and give support to its potencial. A major plank of the argument is that tourism has the capacity to create employment and income faster and more effectively than other industries. It therefore meets many declared economic policy aims of government spokespersons, and it is thus worthy of support grants, subsidies and public-sector promotion. In Canada, the production of a Tourism Satellite Account basicly, a means of using established principles of national income accounting to measure the economic significance of tourism so that in can be credibly compared as an «industry» amongst other industries in Canada's economic structure is an important first step in refining measurement techniques. While the importance of tourism to the Canadian economy is clearly established in this analysis, the Canadian approach produces some estimates that are substantially at odds with (and a good deal smaller than) those produced by others. This presentation summarizes the approach adopted, the basic concepts, methodological challenges, the results obtained and their uses, discusses how the approach differs with others, such as the OECD's Tourism Economic Accounts, and discusses how the technique will be adopted and expanded in the future to provide a vital tool for the tourism industry and for governments.
