Introduction to Tourism Satellite Accounts
5.3 General compositions tourism satellite accounts
5.2.5 Unique characteristics of tourism products
Now, let us consider typical products that tourists purchase. After John and his family travel from Europe to Boston, US, he goes through immigration. Then he exchanges his Euro into US dollar (banking sector), buys a local map and a bottle of water (retail sector), and picks up a taxi (transportation sector) to a hotel. After checking in, they walk around the area and purchased some souvenirs and snacks for children (retail sector). After some relaxation at the hotel, they walked to the movie theater across the block and purchased entrance tickets (entertainment sec- tor). Then they went to the seafood restaurant for a meal (restaurant sector).
Now look at what John ’ s family purchased in Boston. All the goods and services that they purchased were mostly from the Services sector, but can you identify by the characteristics of the product which products can be easily distinguished as ‘ tourism products ’ ? Banking services can be purchased not only by visitors (leisure visitors tourists, and nonleisure visitors nontourists) but also by nonvisitors who live and work in Boston, which is one of the thriving large metropolitan cities in the US. Retail shops and taxis can be used by both visitors and nonvisitors. Souvenirs and snacks may be purchased by both visitors and nonvis- itors, and the same applies to entertainment products. The last example was the consumption at the restaurant. While tourists such as John ’ s family can spend at restaurants, nonvisitors also choose to eat there. So the supply-based product characteristics will not work well to define tourism. Indeed, the concept of tourism is demand-based.
5.2.6 Demand-based concept of tourism
In dealing with tourism-related economic activities, we have to consider the demand-side. We will build up the activities by determining who purchased the product, and decide whether such a purchase was made by a visitor. We cannot assert that all the revenues at the seafood restaurant were caused by visitors because it also attracts non-visitors (see Figure 5-3 ).
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Supply-based and demand-based concept
The same dishes (tourism commodity produced by
“eating and drinking places”) can be consumed by
Tourists Business persons (out of town)
Business persons (living in town)
Visitors
Non Visitors
Local residents
Figure 5-3 Demand-based concept of tourism: the case of tourism commodity produced by eating and drinking places .
Figure 5-4 Example of an event with a mixture of visitors and nonvisitors.
Notes: Photograph taken by the author at the 2007 ZORA! Neale Hurston Festival, Eatonville, Orange County, FL, US. In commemorating the life of one of the most famous black writers, who lived in “the Oldest Black Incorporated Municipality in America” the annual festival has been held for the last 18 years. (Plate 3)
● supplies and consumptions of tourism commodities and all other commodities;
● decomposition of total demand for all commodities into tourism demand for tourism com- modities, then further decomposition of tourism demand into different type of visitors for various commodities;
● tourism output, intermediate needs, and value added;
● tourism employment and compensation.
Measuring the Role of Tourism in OECD Economies – OECD Manual on Tourism Satellite Accounts and Employment 2000 shows their recommendation of 22 tables (including 13 types of table with subcategories) whose titles are shown in Table 5-1 .
Table 5-1 List of tables recommended by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development manual in 2000.
# Table Table name
1 1 Production account of characteristic tourism industries: net basis and gross basis – current prices
2 2 Tourism supply and demand by type of commodity and by type of visitor: net basis at purchaser's price – current prices
3 2A Tourism supply and demand by type of commodity and by type of visitor: gross basis at purchaser's price – current prices
4 3 Supply by characteristic tourism and other industries to meet tourism demand by different types of visitors: net basis – current prices
5 3A Supply by characteristic tourism and other industries to meet tourism demand by different types of visitors: gross basis – current prices
6 4 Tourism value added of characteristic industries and other industries: net basis 7 4A Tourism value added of characteristic industries and other industries: gross basis 8 5 Tourism employment of characteristic industries and other industries
9 6 Visitors ’ characteristics (same day visitors and tourists – recorded on a net basis for tour operators)
10 6A Visitors ’ characteristics (same day visitors and tourists – recorded on a gross basis for tour operators)
11 7 Characteristic tourism industries ’ gross capital acquisition – at current prices
12 8 Characteristic tourism industries ’ gross capital stock – at current prices, end of period 13 9 Production account of characteristic tourism industries: net basis – at prices of previous
period
14 9A Production account of characteristic tourism industries: gross basis – at prices of previous period
15 10 Tourism supply and demand by type of commodity and by type of visitor: net basis at purchaser's prices – at prices of previous period
16 10A Tourism supply and demand by type of commodity and by type of visitor: gross basis at purchaser's prices – at prices of previous period
17 11 Supply by characteristic tourism and other industries to meet tourism demand by different types of vistors: net basis – at prices of previous period
18 11A Supply by characteristic tourism and other industries to meet tourism demand by different types of vistors: gross basis – at prices of previous period
19 12 Tourism value added of characteristic industries and other industries: net basis – at prices of previous period
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Table 5-1 Continued # Table Table name
20 12A Tourism value added of characteristic industries and other industries: gross basis – at prices of previous period
21 13 Characteristic tourism industries ’ gross capital acquisition 22 14 Characteristic tourism industries ’ gross capital stock
Source: Compiled by author from OECD, 2000, pp. 59–85.
These tables are rather comprehensive in nature, and as the book title indicates, they are more like manuals and official guidance of formats for fellow economists who have knowl- edge of the SNA. In the classroom setting, however, hospitality and tourism students find difficult to follow the logic of subsequent TSA tables without seeing the actual numbers. It might help you to follow at least one example of how various tables in TSA had been made and presented with real numbers. In that regard, the case of the TSA for the US will be pre- sented, due to its clarity and comprehensive display of the nation ’ s actual data.