A system of tourism statistics scope and content

• Autores: Antonio Massieu Verdugo
• Localización: Estudios Turísticos, ISSN-e 3020-6723, ISSN 0423-5037, Nº. Extra 161-162, 2004 (Ejemplar dedicado a: International forums on tourism statistics 1994-2004), págs. 193-204
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The term "System of tourism statistics" (STS) appears, for the first time, in point 1.21 of "Introduction" to the "Tourism Satellite Account (TSA): Methodological References" (1) when mentioning that apart from being a new statistical instrument, the TSA must be analysed as "a building process to guide countries in the development of their own system of tourism statistics, the main objective being the completion of the TSA, which could be viewed as a synthesis of such a system". Nevertheless, a full definition, with this or any other similar wording, does not appear in this document or in other documents previously published by the World Tourism Organization (WTO). It must be remembered that in the "Recommendations on Tourism Statistics" (2), under Section 7 "The need for tourism statistics", it was indicated that "some countries and industries have already established a wide and diverse range of tourism data sources, with varying concepts and definitions to meet these needs, while other- countries have not yet developed significant statistical systems for tourism". Moreover, further to the approval of these Recommendations by the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC), it was stressed, in relation to the United States of America, that the term tourism statistical system (3), as used in that study, relates to "the set of data collection programs that encompass all three forms of tourism to, from and within the U.S. and provide measures of visitors" volume and expenditure, as well as the characteristics of the trips and visitors. Some of the data required for the system to be comprehensive are supplied by agencies in other countries". This lack of definition is due to the fact that the process followed until now in relation to the development of tourism statistics is recent, and also because the corresponding development of the statistical infrastructure has not allowed in many cases to go further into the creation of a rigorous conceptual framework in this are