7th International Forum on Tourism Statistics Stockholm, Sweden, 9-11 June 2004 Current developments in expansion of Australia’s tourism data Stan Fleetwood Tourism Division Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources Canberra Australia

International tourism less than a quarter of total tourism

International tourism falling in recent years

More funding for tourism research/statistics Government White Paper “A Medium to Long term Strategy for Tourism” New initiatives: $AUD235 million ($US165 million) Relevant initiatives: Restructure of tourism research/statistics infrastructure Improvements to statistical series

Restructure of tourism bodies From 1 July 2004: Australian Tourist Commission See Australia Bureau of Tourism Research Tourism Forecasting Council Tourism Australia

Provide stronger direction and leadership for Australia’s tourism sector Create synergies Eliminate any perception of duplication of activities of merged bodies Eliminate any real or perceived rivalry between merged bodies Strongly supported by the industry

Improvements to statistics/research $AUD21.6 million ($US15 million) allocated to improvements in statistics/research: Expansion of tourism forecasting Funding the Australian Tourism Satellite Account Expansion of the Survey of Tourist Accommodation Enhancement of domestic and international inbound tourism collections

Current forecasting structure Tourism Forecasting Council currently produces forecasts Established in 1993 Comprises industry and government representatives Technical committee compiles draft forecasts Forecasts normally produced twice a year

Expansion of forecasts Up to now, the TFC’s forecasts have covered: International Inbound tourism: Visitors and Visitor Nights by main source market by main purpose of visit; Visitor Nights in Hotels/Motels/Guest Houses; and tourism export earnings. International Outbound tourism: Visitors by main purpose of travel and by main destination country. Domestic tourism: Visitor Nights by main purpose of travel; and Visitor nights in Hotels/Motels/Guest Houses. Expansion will add: State/Territory Capital City vs Rest Expenditure

Tourism Satellite Account funding ABS produces Tourism Satellite Account Full account every three years, with estimates of main variables in intervening years Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources funds two-thirds of the cost Funding for the next four years is now assured

Survey of Tourist Accommodation  The ABS produces the Survey of Tourism Accommodation  Monthly census of 4,000 hotels, motels, guest houses and serviced apartments  Every third year caravan parks, visitor hostels and holiday flats/units are included  Provides very small-area data  The survey was severely cut in 1998  Pressure from users to expand since then

Expansion of Survey of Tourist Accommodation From January 2005: Hotels, motels, guest houses and serviced apartments with 5 or more rooms will be included (currently only establishments with 15 or more rooms are included) Caravan parks, visitor hostels and holiday flats/units will be included every year

Establishment of Tourism Statistics Regional Advisory Service Low level of knowledge of available data – particularly by small businesses Little understanding of how to use the data Four advisors will be based in States/Territories, servicing on average two States/Territories each Will undertake: training, seminars, awareness raising, assistance using data, etc.

Enhancement of domestic and international tourism statistics Funding allocated for : Enhancement of the International Visitor Survey Expansion of the National Visitor Survey National Visitor Survey: Telephone survey of 80,000 households per year International Visitor Survey: Face-to-face survey of 20,000 departing international visitors

Improvement of the statistics  Meeting of Tourism Ministers in February 2004 to discuss implementation of the Strategy  Discussions between representatives of Federal government, State/Territory governments and of industry  A “clean-sheet” approach was taken to identify stakeholders’ needs and how these might be met  Priority need was for demand side data at the regional/destination level

A possible approach: Development of a destination survey kit; Expansion to the currently existing surveys, the NVS and IVS; and Improvements to the NVS and IVS

A destination survey kit? National surveys – eg NVS and IVS – can never provide good data at small region/destination level For these regions/destinations a destination survey might be the answer But, these have a bad record

Destination surveys: Lessons learned  The survey must be run by a research/statistical agency with the relevant expertise in conducting surveys;  The survey methodology must be kept simple;  The local tourism industry and authority must be actively supportive; and  The surveys should be designed to complement, and be consistent with, the national surveys.

Expansion of NVS and IVS Increase in NVS sample from 80,000 to 120,000 would provide data for 68 tourism regions (we now get data for 57) Increase in IVS sample from 20,000 to 40,000 would provide data for 56 tourism regions (we now get data for 28) These increases are possible within funding now available

Improvements to NVS and IVS Core and non-core data - Core data: data required by all stakeholders - Non-core data: data required by one or more stakeholders Timeliness

Next stages: Recommendations to Australian Standing Committee on Tourism When/if approved, recommendations to Tourism Ministers’ Council on 30 July 2004

and ….. fingers crossed! Thank you.