Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
manipulated to derive a measure which is supposedly representative of the real-world
situation. In reality, this often means that tourism statistics are subject to significant
errors depending on the size of the sample.
The statistical measurement of tourists is far from straightforward; Latham and
Edwards (1989, 2003) identifies a number of distinctive and peculiar problems associated
with the tourist population:
• Tourists are a transient and highly mobile population, making statistical sampling
procedures difficult when trying to ensure statistical accuracy and rigour in
methodological terms.
• Interviewing mobile populations such as tourists is often undertaken in a strange
environment, typically at ports or points of departure or arrival where there is
background noise which may influence responses.
• Other variables, such as the weather, may affect the responses.
Even where sampling and survey-related problems can be minimised, one has to treat
tourism statistics with a degree of caution because of additional methodological issues
that can affect the results. For example, tourism research typically comprises:
• pre-travel studies of tourists' intended travel habits and likely choice of destination
(intentional studies)
• studies of tourists in transit to provide information on their actual behaviour and plans
for the remainder of their holiday or journey (actual and intended studies)
• studies of tourists at the destination or at specific tourist attractions and sites, to provide
information on their actual behaviour, levels of satisfaction, impacts and future
intentions (actual and intended studies)
• post-travel studies of tourists on their return journey from their destination or on-site
experience or once they have returned to their place of residence (post-travel
measures).
In an ideal world, where resource constraints are not a limiting factor on the generation of
statistics, each of the aforementioned approaches should be used to provide a broad
spectrum of research information on tourism and tourist behaviour. In reality,
organisations and government agencies select a form of research which meets their own
particular needs. In practice, most tourism statistics are generated with practical uses in
mind and they may usually, though not exclusively, be categorised as follows:
• measurement of tourist volume, enumerating arrivals, departures and the number of
visits and stays
• expenditure-based surveys which quantify the value of tourist spending at the
destination and during the journey
• the characteristics and features of tourists to construct a profile of the different markets
and segments visiting a destination.
However, before any tourism statistics can be derived, it is important to deal with the
complex and thorny issue of defining the population—the tourist. Therefore, how does
one define and differentiate between the terms
tourism
and
tourist
?
