New Zealand’s tourism data

Peter EllisManager Tourism Research and Evaluation

4 July 2012

What we’re covering today• Overview of tourism data• Four of the key data sets• Access to data• Changes afoot

Produced by:

Information from firms

Accommodation Survey(aka “CAM”)

Convention Activity Survey

Tourism Industry Monitor

Insights

Business scorecard(2014+)

Tourism Satellite AccountInternational Travel and Migration

(including “IVA”)

Longitudinal International Travel Influence and Motivations Study

Regional Visitors Monitor (stopped 2011)

Convention Delegates Survey

Domestic Travel Survey

International Visitors’ Survey

Visitor Experience Monitor

National forecasts

Regional Estimates

Regional Tourism Indicators(2012+)

Information from tourists

Composite or analytical

Active Considerers Monitor

Tourism Industry Association New Zealand

Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

Tourism New Zealand

Statistics New Zealand

Mood of the NZ traveller[Colmar Brunton – Automobile Association] State of the Tourism Sector

[with Lincoln University]

Four of particular importance:

• International Travel and Migration• International Visitors Survey• Tourism Satellite Account• Regional Tourism Indicators

International Travel and Migration

• Arrival and departure cards• The “International Visitor Arrivals” is a subset

of the wider travel information– Basically a count of visitors of 12 months or less

• Collected by Customs and processed by Statistics New Zealand

• Published monthly– Weekly provisional statistics released each Friday

Growth in China is strong but it in absolute terms it is still small compared to Australia, and even to aggregated “other” markets:

International Visitors Survey

• Survey of outgoing visitors (in NZ <12 months)• Main estimation of interest is expenditure– total spend by country, purpose of visit– average value of different visitor types

• Produced by Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

• Feeds into balance of payments and national accounts

• Also includes highlights and disappointments

The decline in real spend per person is across the board and can be seen in any combination of purpose of visit and country of origin:

Compared to other visitors, disappointments reported by Chinese visitors give much more prominence to issues relating to quality, standards, service, accommodation etc

Chinese visitors’ disappointments All visitors’ disappointments

Tourism Satellite Account

• A recasting of the national accounts– Produced annually by Statistics New Zealand

• Percentage of GDP, employment, exports• Direct and indirect contribution of tourism– Only “direct” should be used to compare to other

industries• Estimates of industry ratios and product ratios– ie how much each industry and product is involved

in “tourism”

Regional tourism indicators

• Goes live later this year• Based on electronic transactions• Will give reliable indicators for each region:– Domestic and international tourist spend– Region (domestic) or country (international) of

origin– Industry

• The regional tourism indicators will greatly improve current estimates of regional tourism – based on the accommodation survey; or– statistical modelling of combinations of surveys

(see below)

Access to data – three levels

• Simple– Headline figures– One page “key tourism statistics”– “Key data” or “commentary” for each series

• Moderate– Mostly consultants, industry groups, large firms– Cross tabulations and pivot tables

• available on website (screen shot next slide)• Or via Harmoni for selected users – TNZ, TIANZ, etc

• Expert– Microdata– Specialist statistics software and skills needed

“Tourism data improvement programme”

• Review of “enduring questions” and data needs in 2011– “Domain plan” approved October 2011

• Key priorities:– Redevelop the International Visitors Survey– Develop regional tourism indicators– New approach to forecasts– Business scorecard

• Develop a consolidated modern database– With improved dissemination

• Increase statistical capability in Ministry