Keeping tabs on tourism: a manager's guide to statistics

Abstract

After giving a detailed description of tourism statistics, including their collection and use, the author outlines three major shortcomings. These are the lack of international comparability, the production delay of six to nine months, and the decrease in availability of basic information on tourist movements as frontier formalities diminish. The first problem may be alleviated by standardisation, the second by making use of additional sources of current data, and the third through accommodation records or sample surveys.