Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
DOMESTIC TOURISM STATISTICS
D.G.Pearce (1995a) acknowledges that the scale and volume of domestic tourism
worldwide exceeds that of international tourism, though it is often viewed as the poorer
partner in the compilation of statistics. For example, most domestic tourism statistics tend
to underestimate the scale and volume of flows since certain aspects of domestic tourist
movements are sometimes ignored in official sources. Latham (1998) estimated that the
scale of domestic tourism globally may be ten times the volume of international tourism.
But in contrast to international tourism, domestic tourism statistics remain poor in
quantity and quality (Latham and Edwards 2003). This is compounded by the fact that
domestic tourism has no direct impact on a government's foreign exchange earnings or
balance of payments. The 'visits to friends and relatives, the use of forms of
accommodation other than hotels (for example, second homes, camp and caravan sites)
and travel by large segments of a population from towns to the countryside are not for the
most part included' (Latham and Edwards 2003:64). This is supported by the WTO,
which argues that 'there are relatively few countries that collect domestic travel and
tourism statistics. Moreover some countries rely exclusively on the traditional hotel
sector, thereby leaving out of account the many travellers staying in supplementary
accommodation establishments or with friends and relatives' (WTO 1984, cited in
Latham 1989:65). Therefore, the collection of domestic tourism statistics requires the use
of different data sources aside from the more traditional sources such as hotel records
which identify the origin and duration of a visitor's stay. The development of TSA's has
partly overcome the reliance on single data sources, including a wider range of data
which is available on domestic tourism.
To assist in the identification of who to include as a domestic tourist, the WTO (1983)
suggests the following working definition:
any person, regardless of nationality, resident in a country and who travels
to a place in the same country for not more than one year and whose main
purpose of visit is other than following an occupation remunerated from
within the place visited.
Such a definition includes domestic tourists where an overnight stay is involved and
domestic excursionists who visit an area for less than 24 hours and do not stay overnight.
In fact, Latham and Edwards (2003:65) points to the variety of definitions which exist
aside from those formulated by WTO and the following issues complicate matters
further:
Purpose of visit all countries using this concept define a domestic tourist as one who
travels for a purpose other than to perform a remunerated activity.
The length of trip and/or distance travelled certain definitions state that travellers
should, for example, be involved in an overnight stay and/or travel a prescribed
minimum distance.
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