Section 1 Destination audit - TMI - The Tourism Management ...

Section 1 Destination audit1B Determining the local economic impact of tourism

Introduction

Why measure economic impact at local level?

What do economic impact models measure?

How do these difference economic impacts affect each other?

Considerations and key steps before choosing a model

Current approaches to modelling

Cambridge model

STEAM model

PRIME model

Tourism satellite accounting

What do you do with the results?

Key determinants of success or failure

References

© ENGLISH TOURIST BOARD AND TOURISM MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE 2003

1B Determining the local economic impact of tourism

This component will explain the differing approaches to measuring the local economicimpact of tourism and help you choose the most appropriate measuring technique for yourdestination.

This component also relates to:

• 2B Developing tourism partnerships• 3F Identifying and developing local distinctiveness• 4 Measuring overall tourism performance.

Introduction

Local economic impact studies can reinforce the local commercial importance of tourism andare a key part of measuring sustainable tourism. A key objective of sustainable tourism isthat it benefits the economy of the destination.

Tourism statistics are collected mainly at regional level and aggregated to provide a nationalpicture. Tourism’s impact on the national economy is collated from data collected by theOffice for National Statistics, national tourist boards and other government departments andagencies.

The United Kingdom Travel Survey (UKTS) and International Passenger Survey (IPS) show theovernight volume and spending of UK-resident and overseas visitors to England’s regions.The UK Day Visits Survey measures the impact of day visits and estimates the volume andvalue of leisure day visits taken from home and by tourists away from home.

It is estimated that tourism’s total contribution to the UK economy, including direct spendingon day visits, attractions, restaurants and catering, in addition to spending on goods andservices, was around 4.5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2001.

Information on tourism’s contribution to GDP influences government and releases UK andEuropean funding for infrastructure, community services and environmental improvements,most of which have a local impact.

Why measure economic impact at local level?

Knowing the volume and the economic value for tourism is an essential prerequisite fordeveloping effective policies for managing tourism within local areas. Tourism economicimpact studies also play an invaluable role in supporting the tourism function within localauthorities. Through their income and employment estimates they provide the justificationand rationale for local authorities to invest in initiatives to support tourism industry. Theyalso help galvanise and sustain the necessary political support for tourism at a local level inthe face of increased budget cuts for non-statutory functions.

1B DETERMINING THE LOCAL ECONOMIC IMPACT OF TOURISM


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Key uses for data from local economic impact studies therefore include:

• justifying receipt of government resources such as standard spending assessment (SSA)• helping with the preparation of strategies and policies• justifying funding from outside organisations• enabling the organisation to measure comparative performance and assist with

decision-making• monitoring in planning and other departments• encouraging inward investment• improving local infrastructure• releasing funding from national and European agencies• justifying/unlocking appropriate funds within the organisation• creating partnerships with the commercial sector• supporting expansion plans from the area’s tourism operators• monitoring the results of project commitments• carrying out best value and benchmarking assessments.

If the tourism policies and activities of the destination are to be soundly based, there needsto be an awareness of, and account taken of, the existing levels and type of visitor activity inthe locality and the economic impact that results from them.

What do economic impact models measure?

Economic impact models provide:

• estimates of the volume and value of tourism activity including day visitors within an area• estimates of income generated and employment supported by visitor expenditure.

To produce these estimates, impact models identify three main effects.

• Direct effect – from visitor spending in first-line businesses• Indirect effect – from direct businesses buying from their suppliers and so on down the

supply chain• Induced effect – from the wages earned in businesses in direct and indirect receipt of

visitor spending.

Models include visitor and business surveys to establish the direct effect. Indirect and inducedeffects are estimated by using models that apply multipliers to the known direct spendingdata.

Direct effect

The starting point for determining tourism economic impact is measuring the volume andvalue of tourism.

The direct spending categories that are collated to provide the data for the three mainnational tourism expenditure surveys are shown below. These same categories provide thebasis for measuring tourism spending in the local area.



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Indirect effect

Front-line businesses such as hotels and restaurants buy supplies and services to satisfy visitorneeds so suppliers experience the indirect effect of visitor spending. There are several layersof indirect effect from tourism spending. Each one diminishes in importance further downthe supply chain. Businesses make the initial purchasing decisions that determine whatvisitors will buy. If a front-line accommodation business decides to buy local productswherever possible, the visitor will by default also buy mainly local goods.

Encourage tourism industry to buy locally-produced goods and services to maximise spendingretention and economic impact in your area.

Induced effect

The wages and profits earned by employees and business owners employed in, or operating,tourism-oriented enterprises, or indirectly via these front-line businesses, induce economicimpact.



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Category of touristspending

Travel

Accommodation

Food and drink

Services

Retail

Other

UKTS - UK TourismSurvey

• Travel

• Package trip• Independent

travellers

• Eating and drinking

• Services or advice• Entertainment

• Clothes• Other shopping

• Other

IPS - InternationalPassenger Survey

• Taxi/car hire• Public

transport/petrol

• Accommodation

• Meals out• Alcoholic drinks• Food from shops

• Entertainment• Medical services• Hair and beauty

treatment• Telephone/fax/ post

• Clothing• Souvenirs & gifts• Books & newspapers

• Other services anditems

UKDVS - UK Day VisitsSurvey

• Fuel• Fares• Parking• Tolls• Combined travel and

entrance charges

• Alcoholic drinks• Meals/snacks/non-

alcoholic drinks

• Hiring equipmentand facilities

• Admission tickets

• Gifts and souvenirs• Clothes

• Other

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How do these different economic impacts affect each other?

Visitor expenditure flows

Visitor expenditure affects businesses, employees, the self-employed, local authorities andgovernment because spending in one local business gets passed on to other local businessesand also ends up, in part, as taxes. However, inevitably, some of this expenditure will ‘leak’out of the area due to spending in non-local shops and/or on non-local products.

Although there is leakage outside the area at every stage of the spending model, the key tolocal economic success and a foundation for sustainable tourism is retaining as muchexpenditure in the area as possible.

Purchasing local supplies and services at every level of the supply chain is crucial tosustainable tourism, hence the growing emphasis on farmers’ markets, local supply groupsand improving workforce skills and training to facilitate local employment.

Job creation

The number of jobs supported by visitor expenditure is estimated by using data on thevolume and value of visitor and business spending, applying model multipliers, andvalidating the results against published labour statistics.

Specific studies have provided headline statistics to show the relationship between visitorspending and job creation. For example, a study in the English countryside suggested that an average of £36,600 of additional visitor spending supports one direct job, and £55,000 ofre-purchasing spending with local suppliers generates one indirect job (The economic impactof recreation and tourism in England. The Countryside Agency, 2000). Note, however, thatthese figures are indicative only and will not necessarily be repeated in even apparentlysimilar areas.

It must be remembered that economic impact models can only produce indicative estimatesfor the volume, value and economic benefits of tourism to a local area and not absolutevalues, and this must be borne in mind when using the data.

Considerations and key steps before choosing a model

You should ask some fundamental questions before undertaking an economic impact studyin your area:

• Why do you want the information?• What existing information could contribute to a study?• How do you carry out a study?• What should you consider before you finally decide?



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Why do you want the information?

The typical answer is to justify the tourism function and highlight the importance of tourismwithin the local economic to dispel myths that tourism is not an important economic sectorlocally.

However, there are also two other important questions:

• How much can you afford to spend on your study?• What data do you already have, or can you realistically collect (in terms of your time and

participation from businesses)?

The latter is particularly important. There is no point in tourism officers signing up to amodel which is dependent on locally generated data if the officer has:

• no time to recruit businesses, collect the data and ensure that businesses respond on aregular basis

• limited influence on the businesses to complete and return the necessary data forms; eg, ifyou have previously tried to collect hotel occupancy data in a simplified format and theyhave had limited participation, in spite of considerable effort, is the situation likely tochange?

Ultimately then, the approach ‘best for the destination’ is determined by these three factors– data needs, cost, and ability to secure good, regular local participation from businesses.

What existing information could contribute to a study?

Most models rely on information about the supply of accommodation and demandinformation on overnight and day visits. Information is usually defined as either ‘supply’ or‘demand’ side to differentiate between the product available and its market effect.

The information needed by model engineers is usually available from existing data orprevious studies. The model may use some proxy information from similar surveys and theremay be a need for completely new surveys.

The following list shows some of the information that models may need so that they canbuild a picture of tourist activity and its impacts in the selected area of study. An indication isprovided of sources of some data.

Supply-side information

• Resident population – local authority, www.statistics.gov.uk for neighbourhood data on2001 census

• Employment statistics – government office, regional development agency, local authority,business survey

• Number and type of tourism businesses including retail, catering and attractions – localauthority, commercial directories, audit survey

• Bed stock by tourism sector – local authority, regional tourist board (RTB)• Number of tourist information centres (TIC) and other information and booking agencies –

local authority, RTB• Transport services available – local authority, commercial operators



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http://www.statistics.gov.uk

Demand-side information

• Regional and local volume and spending data on overnight and day visits for domesticand overseas visitors – RTB, local authority, visitor survey, industry survey

• Occupancy levels – RTB, local authority, industry survey • TIC visits – local authority, tourist association, TIC • Recent visitor surveys – local authority, RTB• Visitor attraction and events attendance – RTB, local authority, commercial operators,

events organisers, police authority• Traffic counts and car park occupancy – local authority, Highways Agency

It is also important to bear the following in mind:

1 Key information (such as data on the supply of accommodation stock) must be as accurateas possible – under or over estimates in accommodation capacity will be reflected in (andadversely affect) subsequent volume calculations.

2 Occupancy data must be representative for all accommodation sectors – particularly in areas where the tourism product is very diverse. For example within a district there may be:

- rural B&Bs, town-based B&Bs, perhaps coastal B&Bs- independent hotels – in rural, urban, coastal locations- chain hotels – in rural, coastal, urban locations- inns and public houses providing accommodation in rural, coastal and urban locations.

For the serviced sector alone, there is therefore substantial differentiation in terms ofquality, location and type of accommodation establishment. To obtain reliable data which is representative of the occupancies of all these different types of establishmentsrequires a large, consistent sample of establishments supplying data on a regular basis; eg every month.

3 The need to ensure that sample is not biased by response from higher performingestablishments which could lead to overestimation of staying visitor numbers ifextrapolated to wider accommodation base.

4 The need to ensure consistency of response within the sample to ensure detected trendsare not more indicative of establishments erratically reporting than changes happening onthe ground.

5 The need for transparency within the process, so that commissioning destinations areaware of what data is being used, its sample size and what assumptions are being madeso that they have ownership in the process.

How do you carry out a study?

There are two main options: either to use a branded model; or to commission a specific adhoc study from an appropriate university or organisation. A branded model will probablycost less than a primary research model but will still provide exclusive results. On the otherhand, an ad hoc model can be created to answer a wider range of explicit economicquestions in the study area, and may also be used to forecast changes.



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If the information you require is to measure tourism trends, branded models will deliver this.However, local circumstances may warrant the likely additional costs of an ad hoc study.

What should you consider before you finally decide?

This handbook component is designed to introduce the basics of measuring economicimpact. Those requiring a more detailed analysis on the subject should refer to theDepartment for Culture, Media and Sport guidance pack, ‘Measuring the Local Impact ofTourism’, which is available at www.culture.gov.uk (forms and documents 1998 archive). TheBritish Resorts Association also offers advice, and the South East England Tourist Board hasproduced two papers on behalf of the RTBs.

Before seeking tenders for an economic model, the destination should create a ‘userrequirement’ identifying six key criteria:

• Reliability – how accurate do you need the information to be?• Timeliness – how soon will you want the information to be available following actual

events?• Participation – how will you involve those who will provide as well as use the information?• Cost – what is affordable, including the internal staff and other resources you will need to

support this work?• Comparability – is part of your requirement to make comparisons with other local areas,

or with the regional or national total?• Frequency – is the information required continually, meaning, say, every year or every

month? It may be as important to assess change over time as it is to estimate the level oftourism during a given period.

Information on the branded models available, with contact details, is outlined below.

Current approaches to modelling

An overview of some of the models available or under development is given below. Thishandbook does not recommend any particular model. It is assumed that ad hoc and off-the-shelf categories will be considered and models within these categories examined.

In selecting an ad hoc approach, it is recommended that having identified exactly what isrequired from a model, you should contact colleagues in your organisation who may haverequired similar information on measuring economic impact from other industries. This maybring pointers as to which commercial or academic organisation should be invited to tender.Advice from professional membership organisations and similar bodies that may haveundertaken tourism studies can also help the decision making process.

To help those that have decided to use an existing off-the-shelf model, this section providesa brief synopsis of two models that measure economic impact and one model that forecastseconomic impact.



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http://www.culture.gov.uk

Cambridge Model

Name: the Cambridge Model, an abbreviation of Cambridge Local Area Model.Provides: an estimate of the volume and the economic effects of tourism activity in aselected area. It can operate at different levels according to budgets/quantity of localtourism data available.Application: region, county, district and discreet areas including branded destinations andenvironmentally designated areas such as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) andNational Parks.Method: spreadsheet model with menu driven approach. In its basic form, comprises twostages: 1 Estimating the volume and value of tourism activity including day visits within a local area:

- Regional data from the UK Tourism Survey, the International Passenger Survey and theUnited Kingdom Day Visits Survey. To achieve local estimates, drivers such as known localaccommodation stock, estimates of local residential population, visitor attractionperformance data and other survey information is used.

2 Estimating employment supported by visitor spending:- The model estimates employment using this data, the New Earnings Survey, internal

business data and estimates of spending by different visitor groups. Using multipliersand adjustments, an estimate of indirect and induced jobs completes the picture.

Further more advanced survey stages also exist, where additional local data collection can becommissioned for information on local level of occupancy, visitor structure and associatedspend, and business surveys generating local calibration of the economic stage of the model.ResultsOutputs include estimates of:

• value and volume of staying trips by domestic and overseas staying visitors, withbreakdowns for purpose of visit and accommodation used

• the number of nights spent by overseas and domestic visitors• value and volume of day trips• direct visitor expenditure by different sector; eg accommodation, eating/drinking,

shopping, attractions, transport/travel• impact of associated multiplier and linkage spend• indication of the level of direct and indirect employment and induced jobs resulting from

the wages of people in direct and indirect tourism employment.

A detailed study report is provided with commentary on results and issues that wereidentified at the study’s conception.

Contact: RTBs distribute this model, which is owned by Geoff Broom Associates. Contact yourRTB for further information.



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yLincolnshire WoldsThe Cambridge Model was used in the Lincolnshire Wolds as part of a county-wide economicimpact study. The area consists of 62 parishes in the Wolds AONB and 18 parishes in theWolds landscape area inside the county boundary.

Among its findings, the study showed that total spending by staying and tourist day visitorsamounted to almost £70 million a year, of which 75% was accounted for by tourism day visitspending. Nearly half of the total spending was on food and drink. This spending supportsan estimated 1,668 full-time equivalent jobs, which equates to 2,349 actual jobs when takinginto account part-time seasonal working.

STEAM Model

Name: the Scarborough Tourism Economic Activity Monitor (STEAM).Provides: an indicative base of the local economic impact of tourism (from both staying andday visitors) for monitoring trends.Application: any area that is capable of providing the minimum four inputs shown below.Method: a spreadsheet model that uses values, relationships and equations from local inputdata. As a minimum, implementation of STEAM within an area depends on the followinginputs:

• information on occupancy percentages each month for each type of accommodation• bed stock of each type of accommodation• attendance at attractions/major events by month• TIC visitors by month.

The model is built up from this basic information and by drawing on data from published orunpublished sources, local interviews and supplementary trade enquiries. Results: the STEAM report provides commentary, annual and month-by-month numericoutputs for the years of study and the comparison with the previous study information,including:

• distribution of visitor spending• revenue generated by the main categories of visitor• annual number of visitor days spent in the area by category of visitor• total count of all visitors annually• full-time employment generated by visitor spending.

The report includes:

• economic impact• population• employment• tourist days/tourist numbers• vehicle days/vehicle numbers• bed stock• relationship of direct and indirect impacts• data available to determine employment generated.



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Contact: STEAM’s owner, Global Tourism Solutions (UK) Ltd. 2 Barleycroft, Filey Road,Scarborough, North Yorks YO11 3AR, tel: 01723 506310

Using the STEAM model, Cumbria Tourist Board and its local authority partners areundertaking a six-year economic impact research study (due for completion in 2004) of theLake District National Park and six local districts to underpin trend analysis. The findingsfrom the model have helped to raise the awareness of the importance of tourism to the localeconomy and to measure the impact of, and recovery from, foot and mouth disease. Themodel has already shown that Cumbria earns around £1 billion of tourism revenue a year.

PRIME Model

Name: PRoject IMpact Evaluation.Provides: forecast indication of the expected volume and value of tourism activity generatedby a project in its local and regional setting and measures actual performance once theproject is open.Application: designed to apply to single projects and their impact in the local district orunitary authority area.Method: PRIME has two components: a computer model that indicates expected outputsfrom the project; and a guidance pack for developers seeking to set up or extend theirproject.The computer model requires the input of forecast data about the project including:anticipated cost; turnover; employment; and visitor numbers.Results: the model provides an estimate of the likely gross and net impacts from the projectin terms of expenditure and jobs.The use of the model to pre-appraise the impacts of proposed projects should be regarded asa useful tool to aid consideration rather than generating a definitive calculation.Contact: RTBs distribute this model by arrangement with Geoff Broom Associates. Pleasecontact your RTB for further information.

Milestones - Hampshire’s Living History MuseumTo attract Konver European funding, PRIME was used by the Southern Tourist Board (STB) toassess the likely economic impact of the Milestones Museum in Basingstoke. The model gaveestimates for full-time equivalent jobs: 54.3 jobs at the construction and initial marketingstage, 44 for the museum’s operation and a further 15.4 indirect and 14.4 induced jobs awayfrom the project. The model also demonstrated the impact of 120,000 annual visitorsspending around £8.85 million a year during their trips in the STB region.

Tourism Satellite Accounting

In recent years the use of Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSA) has progressively increasedworldwide as a tool for modelling changes in the industry and forecasting on an ongoingbasis.

TSAs aim to improve the quality of information available on the tourism sector to betterinform decision making by government and by industry. This is achieved by combining



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information from existing surveys, along with some additional data, to produce anauthoritative and consistent source.

In practice TSAs are a set of detailed tables focussed on estimating flows of moneypertaining to tourism activity. The tables produce high quality outputs by virtue of havingreconciled estimates of both demand, from surveys of tourists’ expenditure, and of supply (ie goods and services), from surveys of businesses.

Possible uses of Tourism Satellite Accounts are:

• to present economic value of tourism in a credible way, to an internationally agreedstandard. This enables comparisons with the performance of other industries (and wholeeconomy), other countries and over time. A cynical view might be that this is simply foradvocacy purposes. Perhaps another way of putting this is that it is part of the sponsorshiprole to ensure that credible, timely and relevant industry statistics are available togovernments, parliaments, industry, the public and the media, both in the UK and abroad.

• to help with the evaluation of initiatives on business policy and market campaigns, whereregional/national economic impact is one of the relevant criteria of success.

• to gain insight into tourism and its socio-economic functions and impacts, especiallyemployment and the labour market; also the mix of tourism visitors.

• to understand the production functions of tourism industries and the inter-linkagesbetween the tourism industries and the rest of the economy; eg other industries, such asthose covered by transport policy; government revenues from taxes and duties.

• to monitor capital investment in tourism and how this fits (or not) with tourism supply anddemand and to help in planning decisions; eg transport infrastructure.

• to understand the tourism industry’s capital stock and capital base; eg in relation toplanned investment.

• generally to provide a framework for testing the economic implications of policy; eg tosee how these impact on tourism growth or on productivity, and to model the effects ofshocks to tourism.

• to provide a national reference against which to assess and compare regional and localtourism activities, planned attractions, etc.

A number of initiatives are currently progressing within the UK and there is also anexpectation that this trend will continue. For example, Council Resolution on the Future ofEuropean Tourism (21 May 2002) called for member states ‘to actively launch a processtowards the implementation of TSAs’.



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sWhat do you do with the results?

Using the results

Firstly, the results should satisfy the question, ‘Why do we want this information?’ The resultsneed to be interpreted and used.

• Promote to council members and officers to demonstrate the importance of tourism locallyand the importance of tourism research.

• Create a press release to highlight tourism’s importance to the local community.• Circulate the information to the local tourism industry and to encourage continued/future

participation in business surveys and to demonstrate that the data they supply is fullyutilised and valued.

• Make the data readily available to agencies, other departments and local businesses toenable wider usage; eg in planning applications.

Most models will not only provide data, but a commentary and interpretation of thefindings. This should assist the client in identifying strengths and weaknesses in its tourismoffer and highlight areas where action can be taken to reinforce a sustainable economy.

The information obtained for a local audience of local authority and tourism businessinterests will also contribute to the regional and national sustainable tourism indicators thatrecognise the value of such information.

The results of the study will contribute to a knowledge bank for access by the manydepartments in local authorities that are involved with, or affected by tourism.

To maintain a high profile for tourism, publicise good news stories about tourism’s economicimpact. Do this both within your organisation and in the local area.

Organising an event to present study findings to local politicians, council officers in otherdepartments and local tourism businesses can be a useful exercise as allows questions to beraised and wider support for tourism to be generated.

Retention of spending in the area

Economic and tourism development managers have the opportunity to create higher localimpact by encouraging the reduction of leakage of visitor spending to other areas.

This can start within the tourism department where, in some cases, photography, design andprint of the annual destination guide are not sourced within the area.

If the products and services needed to meet visitor expectations are available from localsources, the purchaser can contribute to the local economy simply by buying them locally.

The Green Audit Kit produced by the English Tourism Council and The Countryside Agency(available from RTBs) is a good starting point for tourism businesses to develop their localpurchasing systems and contribute to sustainable tourism.



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Those involved with tourism promotion and development can influence the retention ofspending in their area by encouraging tourists to buy local produce and/or from localbusinesses – and, importantly, by encouraging businesses to buy local products and employlocal people.

Key determinants of success or failure

The success of an economic model relies on the input of reliable information and goodmodel design. The following factors may need to be considered in discussion with modelowners before starting the study.

Defining the area

Since most visitors are unaware when they cross local authority boundaries, it may be moredifficult to measure economic impact. For example, visitors to the Cotswolds may be able torecall spending money there, but may not be able to recall in which of the three Cotswoldcounties.

Do not assume that visitors’ knowledge of local geography will recall reliable information onwhere they spent their money. This is an even greater problem when using postal surveyscarried out after a visit.

Visitors can typically underestimate some types of expenditure, particularly travel where theydo not take into account fuel costs etc.

Reliability of surveys

To obtain missing or to provide up-to-date information, it may be necessary tocommission or undertake new surveys. The company offering the modelmay carry out this work as part of its contract.

Quantitative surveys may be used to determine the origin, age and status of the respondent,mode of travel, amount and type of spending, and places visited. Some qualitative answersmay also be sought to indicate the appeal of the area and likelihood of return visits.

As with any survey, to get meaningful answers, the right questions have to be asked. Try tolook at other surveys conducted by your organisation or partners and speak with yourcolleagues regarding lessons learned. Alternatively, the organisation may choose to design itsown or use one devised by the model engineer.

Most surveys rely on sampling techniques that measure a sample of people and deduce atotal from that evidence. Commercial models may use this approach and should choosetechniques that provide an acceptable level of confidence in their results.

Because surveys provide the baseline data on visitor activities which create the economicimpact in an area, it may be preferable to appoint a professional survey organisation thatcan validate its results.

Try to integrate your visitor survey work with your economic impact studies so that theeconomic impact study can fully benefit from this local dataset.



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National and regional statistics

Both the International Passenger Survey (IPS) and the United Kingdom Tourism Survey (UKTS)are dedicated tourism surveys, undertaken on a continual basis with large sample sizes of261,000 and 50,000 respectively. Estimates of trips, nights and spend are published down to acounty level on an annual basis, along with the associated confidence intervals. In 2000,there was an unavoidable change to the UKTS survey methodology, which has necessitatedthe readjustment of previous data years. However, it is widely regarded that the new UKTSmethodology represents a more dedicated and sophisticated tourism survey, and a numberof improvements have been brought about – namely the faster dissemination of results.

Most models use these two surveys to varying degrees, depending on the amount of localinformation available. Both the IPS and UKTS surveys are operated to very high standardsand regional breakdowns provide invaluable, robust data for local area tourism economicimpact studies.

Be aware of the methodology of arriving at first-stage data and ask the model operator howthis might affect the results from the model.

Multipliers that lead to employment estimates

To measure the cumulative effects of original spending, multipliers are used to assess the linkbetween direct visitor spending and its subsequent impact on turnover and wages in supply-chain businesses. The employment multiplier demonstrates the direct, indirect and inducedeffects of changes in visitor spending on local employment including self-employment.

Most multipliers used by economists are well established and come from extensive use. Whilemultipliers are essential in delivering output information, errors in input data on visitorspending will be multiplied when arriving at estimates of the indirect, induced andemployment effects of that spending.

It would be a mistake to use the results from one area and apply them to another, as supply-and demand-side data is unique to each area.

This is an important point, as there is often considerable variation between the local profile/pattern of tourism between neighbouring districts.

There is no simple or agreed format for measuring economic impact assessment and, in fact,this has been subject to some debate. However, as outlined in this component, the importantfactor is to decide why you want to measure economic impact and then choose a model orad hoc study accordingly. The measurement of economic impact and the changes of thisimpact over time are a very important measure for sustainability and help in the decision-making process for actions that will encourage sustainability.



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References

British Resorts Associationwww.britishresorts.co.uk

Carpenter H. The Economic impact of visitors: data collection and evaluation at local level –Discover Islington, Insights, Vol 11: C47-55 2000

Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Guidance on Measuring Sustainable Tourism atthe Local Level, 2002. Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2-4 Cockspur Street, London, SW1Y 5DHwww.culture.gov.uk

Middleton V. Measuring the Local Impact of Tourism, British Resorts Association, 1998.‘Measuring the Local Impact of Tourism’ - Department for Culture, Media and SportAvailable free www.culture.gov.uk/tourism/forms_documents.html – 1998 archive

Information about the Cambridge Economic Model may be obtained from your regionaltourist board.

Information about the STEAM Economic Model may be obtained by contacting Global Tourism Solutions (UK) Ltd., 2 Barleycroft, Filey Road, Scarborough, North Yorkshire,YO11 3AR.

Information about the PRIME (project impact appraisal model) may be obtained bycontacting Northumbria Tourist Board.

Measuring the local impact of tourism: a response to the BRA and the LGA paper preparedby the English Regional Tourist Boards, July 2002

Measuring the local impact of tourism: a response to the BRA/LGA Paper, ETC Insights,September 2002.



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http://www.britishresorts.co.uk

http://www.culture.gov.uk

http://www.culture.gov.uk/tourism/forms_documents.html

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