5331.0 - Balance of Payments and International Investment Position, Australia, Concepts, Sources and Methods, 1998  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 22/09/1998   
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7.11. Travel covers all goods and services acquired for personal use in an economy by travellers and foreign workers. A traveller is defined as an individual who stays for less than one year in a country where he or she is not a resident. There are some exceptions to this definition:

      • foreign government officials (and accompanying dependants) employed abroad, such as diplomatic and military personnel stationed at a military base or at an embassy or consulate, are not considered travellers. Expenditures of these individuals in foreign economies are included in government services n.i.e. rather than travel;
      • persons who are employed in another economy for less than one year are also regarded not as travellers but as foreign workers. However, any personal expenditure they incur is included in travel; and
      • the one-year rule does not apply to students and medical patients; they remain residents of their economies of origin even if their length of stay in another economy is one year or more, provided they are regarded as still having their centre of economic interest in the country of origin

7.12. The most common goods and services that travellers and foreign workers acquire are meals, accommodation, entertainment, sightseeing tours, gifts and souvenirs. As long as the goods and services are acquired by the traveller for personal rather than commercial use, it does not matter whether the goods and services are consumed immediately or later, or whether the goods and services are consumed by the traveller or by a third person.

7.13. In economic statistics, the travel component covers goods and services provided to travellers, whether or not the goods and services are paid for by the traveller, paid for by a third party or are provided by the supplier without a quid pro quo. The offset to goods and services provided without a quid pro quo (e.g. free accommodation with a relative or friend, free tuition received by a student) should be recorded in current transfers. In practice, only foreign students’ expenditure in Australia funded under Australia’s foreign aid program is identified as a service provided without a quid pro quo, and offsetting amounts are included in both travel credits and current transfers debits.

7.14. Travel is broken down into two components, business travel and personal travel. Business travel covers personal expenditures on goods and services by seasonal and other non-resident workers in the economies in which they are employed, and by travellers who visit an economy for sales campaigns, market exploration, commercial negotiations, missions, meetings, production or installation work, or other business purposes, on behalf of an enterprise resident in another economy.

7.15. Personal travel is further broken down into education-related travel and other personal travel. Education-related travel covers all expenditure by students, including tuition fees and course material. Other personal travel covers expenditure by travellers for purposes other than business and education (i.e. for leisure activities such as holidays or participation in sports, for health purposes, and for other recreational and cultural activities, visits with relatives and friends, pilgrimages and religious observances).







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