Tourism Satellite Account methodology

The Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) presents economic information on tourism activity in Australia. The account is built, as far as possible, in line with the Manuals on Tourism Statistics and Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSA: RMF) which provides the internationally recognised conceptual framework for constructing a TSA.

Implicitly, tourism is included in the core Australian System of National Accounts (ASNA). However, while all the products that are produced and consumed in meeting tourism demand are embedded in the core accounts, they are not readily apparent. This is because tourism is not identified as an industry in industrial statistical classifications. In the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006 edition, underlying the Australian National Accounts, industries are defined based on the goods and services produced. On the other hand, the tourism industry is defined according to the status of the consumer being a tourist.

The TSA facilitates separate analysis of tourism’s economic aspects by utilising the structure of the national accounts. A key feature of a TSA is its integration within the broader economic context, enabling determination and comparison of tourism’s contribution to major national accounting aggregates.

The 2023-24 TSA introduces several improvements. These improvements aim to better align the account with international standards, refine the account’s methodology and incorporate new data sources. See the History of changes section for more detail.

International standards

The concepts and methods used in the Australian TSA are based on international standards developed by an Inter-Secretariat Working Group on Tourism Statistics that is comprised of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the statistical arm of the Commission of the European Communities (Eurostat), the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), and the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). These standards are presented in the TSA: RMF 2008. National statistical offices such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) were consulted during the development and updating of the international standards. The standards are based on the System of National Accounts 2008 (SNA2008), which is the prevailing international standard for national accounts statistics.

Scope of the TSA

The ABS TSA measures the economic characteristics in the visitor economy. Key tourism supply measures such as: direct tourism output; direct tourism gross value add (GVA); direct tourism gross domestic product (GDP); and direct tourism employment, relate to the direct impact of tourism only. A direct impact occurs where there is a direct relationship (physical and economic) between the visitor and the producer of a good or service.

Visitor

A traveller taking a trip to a main destination outside their usual environment, for less than a year, for any main purpose (business, leisure, or other personal purpose) other than to be employed by a resident entity in the country or place visited. (International Recommendations for Tourism Statistics (IRTS) 2008, para 2.9).

If a person stays in the one place for longer than one year, their centre of economic and social interest is deemed to be in that place, so they no longer qualify as a visitor.

The following types of persons are not considered to be a visitor:

• persons for whom travel is an intrinsic part of their job, e.g., bus driver, air crew.
• persons who travel for the purpose of being admitted to or detained in a residential facility such as a hospital, prison or long stay care.
• persons who are travelling as part of a move to a new permanent residence.
• persons who are undertaking military duties.
• persons who are travelling between two parts of their usual environment.

The one-year rule for length of stay for an international visitor is consistent with the principle applied in determining residency in the balance of payments, which generally requires the length of stay in an economic territory to be less than one year to qualify as a non-resident. However, exceptions exist, such as international students. International students retain their residency status in their home territory, even if their studies abroad exceed one year. In contrast, the TSA considers students who stay longer than a year (irrespective of short breaks) as residents of their educational institution’s location and not as a visitor. International students in short-term courses are considered visitors if their actual stay is less than one year within a sixteen-month period.

Usual environment

The usual environment is made up of one or more areas in which a person undertakes their regular activities such as their place of residence or place of work. The usual environment criterion has two dimensions: frequency and distance. Places that are visited on a routine basis (at least once a week) are considered part of a person's usual environment, even if the place visited is located a considerable distance from their place of residence. The distance that a traveller must travel to be a visitor is 50km round trip for same day travel or 40km away from their usual residence for overnight travel.

Types of visitors

Visitors are classified into national/domestic and international visitors:

National/domestic

Visitors consist of Australian residents who travel outside their usual environment within Australia. They include both overnight visitors (staying one or more nights at a location) and same day visitors. National/domestic visitors are split into the following categories.

• Business/government; Visitors travelling for business or government purposes. All expenses incurred during these trips are attributed to the business/government travel purpose, regardless of whether the expenditure is for business or personal reasons, such as leisure activity. For example, a person may visit a destination for two days to conduct business, then stay on for an additional three days to visit local attractions. Under this scenario all activities and expenses during this trip are classified under business/government travel.
• Household; visitors travelling for leisure and/or visiting family and friends.

International

Visitors who travel to a country other than that in which they have their usual residence.

Direct and indirect tourism output

In Table 7.1, tourism output is split into direct and indirect components. Direct output refers to situations where there is a direct relationship between the visitor and the supplier of the good or service.

Indirect output refers to the value derived from the production of goods that are purchased by tourists but produced by entities that do not maintain a direct relationship with the tourists.

For instance, if a tourist purchases a souvenir from a retail outlet, the output from the manufacturing unit that produced the souvenir is considered indirect output. This is because there was no direct connection between the manufacturer and the tourist. However, the retail margin associated with sale of the product is considered as direct output, as the retail outlet has a direct relationship with the tourist.

It should be noted that products that are part of intermediate production to produce tourism products, are not included in indirect output in this account.

Tourism economic contribution

The economic impact of tourism is measured using several key concepts derived from the SNA. In the TSA these are all direct measures with the exception on indirect output in Table 8.1.

Tourism expenditure: purchasers’ prices (PP)

The amount visitors pay for the acquisition of goods and services, for own use or to give away, for and during tourism trips. It includes expenditures by visitors themselves, as well as expenses that are paid for or reimbursed by others. (IRTS 2008, para 4.2).

Tourism consumption: purchasers’ prices (PP)

Tourism consumption is broader in scope than expenditure and includes imputations for the consumption by visitors of certain services for which they do not make an economically significant payment. This does not include expenses paid by others on their behalf such as by employers or other households. These are separately identified in Table 4.1. Imputed consumption in the Australian TSA include:

• Housing services provided by vacation homes on own account (imputed services of holiday homes deemed to be consumed by their visitor owners).
• Values of non-market services provided directly to visitors such as public museums or tourist information centres even though these may be provided free or at a price which is not economically significant.

Tourism Output: basic prices (BP)

The value of products produced that serve visitors before any taxes and margins on tourism products are added (or any subsidies on tourism products are deducted). Note, margins that have a direct relationship with tourists are included in total output at BP and allocated to retail margins. BP valuation of output removes the distortion caused by variations in the incidence of commodity taxes and subsidies across the output of individual industries.

Tourism gross value added (GVA)

Tourism GVA is measured as the value of the output at BP of tourism products by industries in a direct relationship with visitors less the value of the intermediate inputs used in producing these tourism products.

Tourism net taxes on products

Taxes less subsidies that are levied on the sale or transfer of goods and services that are directly related to a transaction with a visitor. Downstream taxes on products such as import duties are not considered a direct tourism tax on products.

Tourism gross domestic product (GDP)

Direct tourism GDP measures the sum of direct tourism GVA, plus direct taxes on products less direct subsidies on products associated with tourism expenditure. Direct tourism GDP is a satellite account construct to enable a comparison with the most widely recognised national accounting indicator, GDP.

Margins on tourism products

The output generated from delivering a product from the producer to the final consumer. For example, a retail margin represents the value added by the retail industry in the process of selling the product to the final consumer, while a transport margin represents the value added by the transportation industry in delivering the product from the producer to the retailer or the final consumer.

Tourism imports

Domestic consumption of products in the visitor economy that are produced overseas. Amounts payable to non-residents for the provision of tourism services to residents is excluded from the tourism estimate.

Tourism employment

A job becomes a tourism-related job when it has a direct impact on tourism activity. A direct impact occurs where there is a direct relationship (physical and economic) between a visitor and the worker.

Jobs can be measured as

• The main job of a person. If a person is employed in multiple jobs only the main job is included.
• Filled jobs. This measure is based on the number of jobs held by people employed in main jobs as well as secondary jobs.

Inbound trips

Trips undertaken by a non-resident visitor to Australia. Only consumption within Australia is included in the TSA.

Outbound trips

Trips undertaken by Australian residents travelling to another country. Only consumption within Australia before and after the international trip is included in the TSA.

Relationship with balance of payments tourism related services

In this release information on Tourism Consumption by Australian Residents on Outbound Trips is presented. This includes the value of goods and services sourced from non-residents purchased by Australian residents in association with these trips. The difference in the estimates and the service debits memorandum item published in the balance of payments relate to any transactions between residents and non-residents which do not relate to the value of tourism goods and services purchased within Australian economic territory and expenditure by student travellers on long term visas (as they do not meet the definition of a visitor).

Balance of payments tourism related services credits are closely related to exports of tourism goods and services in the estimates of the value of domestically produced goods and services presented in the Tourism Consumption by Non-residents on Inbound Trips table in this release. The most significant differences occur because the Australian TSA excludes the expenditure of overseas students with a length of stay of greater than one year and non-resident to resident transactions which occur in other countries, for example the delivery of services by Australian residents in other countries, both of which are included in the balance of payments. See Recording of international students in the balance of payments for more information.

The other differences relate to the TSA imputations for non-market services provided to overseas visitors and the value of products provided to overseas visitors within private households. These imputations are generally not recorded in the balance of payments.

Not all products and industries in standard national accounts product and industry classifications are related to tourism. Therefore, the TSA distinguishes between products and industries that are related to tourism, and those which are not. Tourism related products and industries are further classified into tourism characteristic and tourism connected.

Tourism characteristic products

These are products that would significantly diminish in quantity or whose sales would drastically drop in the absence of tourism. The international TSA standards recommend a core list of such products, which are significant in their connection to tourism on a global scale, to facilitate international comparisons. This core list aligns with the international product classification, specifically the Central Product Classification (CPC), Version 2.1 (CPC V2.1). See Appendix - tourism product correspondence for a concordance between tourism related products in the Australian TSA and products included in the CPC V2.1.

The international TSA standards also suggest identifying country-specific tourism characteristic products. In the context of the Australian TSA, a product is considered a country-specific tourism characteristic product if visitors consume at least 25% of its total output.

Tourism Connected Products

Tourism connected products are those that are consumed by visitors at a significant amount but are not considered as tourism characteristic products. All products that are not consumed by visitors in a significant amount are classified as 'all other goods and services' in the TSA.

Tourism characteristic industries

These industries are defined as those that would either cease to exist in their current form or would be significantly impacted if tourism were to cease. The international standards recommend a core list of such industries, which have a significant connection to tourism on a global scale, to facilitate international comparisons. This core list aligns with the International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities (ISIC) Revision 5 (ISIC Rev. 5), which closely aligns with the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) Revision 2.0. See Appendix - tourism industry correspondence for a concordance between tourism related industries and industries included in the ANZSIC.

In the context of the Australian TSA, an industry is considered a country-specific tourism characteristic industry if visitors consume at least 25% of its output. However, whether an industry is classified as characteristic or not does not affect the total value added resulting from tourism. The TSA measures the GVA resulting from the production of products directly consumed by visitors, not the total GVA generated by tourism-related industries.

Tourism connected industries

Tourism connected industries are those, other than tourism characteristic industries, for which a tourism related product is directly identifiable to it, and where the products are consumed by visitors in volumes which are significant for the visitor and/or the producer. All other industries are classified as 'all other industries', though some of their products may be consumed by visitors and are included in the calculation of direct tourism GVA and direct tourism GDP.

Tourism Research Australia (TRA)- National Visitor Survey (NVS)

The NVS asks Australian residents about their travel experiences both within Australia and overseas.  

Key use of data:

• Informs domestic tourism expenditure at PP for Australian residents.

TRA- International Visitor Survey (IVS)

The IVS measures the total spend within Australia by international visitors.

Key use of data:

• Informs expenditure at PP for international visitors in Australia.

ABS- Balance of payments

The balance of payments summarises transactions between residents and non-residents during a specific period.

Key use of data:

• Informs expenditure on airline services from resident entities and the value of education exports.

ABS- Australia System of National Accounts: Annual estimates

Contains detailed national accounts estimates which are provided for GDP and its components, the national income account, the national capital account, the national financial account and the national balance sheet. Income, capital and financial accounts and a balance sheet are provided for each sector of the economy. Also provided is a range of information classified by industry, details of capital formation (including capital stocks) and productivity statistics.

Key use of data:

• Informs whole of economy estimates for Australian production and GVA for direct comparison with tourism estimates.

ABS- Australian System of National Accounts (ASNA): Input-Output tables

The Input-Output tables provide information about the supply and use of products in the Australian economy, and the structure of and inter-relationships between Australian industries.

Key use of data:

• Informs BP price, margins, and taxes on products to purchase price (PP) ratios.

ABS- Australian System of National Accounts (ASNA): Supply-Use Tables

Supply-use tables are the building blocks for the ASNA as they are used to balance GDP for all three approaches (production, expenditure, and income) and provide the annual benchmarks (levels) from which the quarterly estimates are compiled. They provide detailed information about the supply and use of products in the Australian economy, and the structure of and interrelationships between Australian industries.

Key use of data:

• Informs primary input to output calculations.
• Informs consumption of items where market prices are not available, for example the value of services offered by tourist information centres and public art galleries.
• Informs which industries produce each tourism product.

ABS- Economic Activity Survey (EAS)

The EAS is conducted annually to collect the most up-to date data on the economic health of Australian industries. The EAS includes a large sample of business/organisations across Australia, varying in size and industry, to best reflect the Australian economy.

Key use of data:

• Informs primary input to output calculations for industries where other data sources do not have sufficient detail.

ABS- Australian Labour Account

The Australian Labour Account integrates data from various sources including household surveys, business surveys and administrative data to produce a coherent and internally consistent set of aggregate estimates of key labour market variables.

Key use of data:

• Provides whole of economy employment estimates by industry.
• Provides whole of economy hours worked by industry.

ABS- Labour Force Survey (LFS)

Provides information about the labour market activity of Australia's resident civilian population aged 15 years and over. The LFS is designed to primarily provide estimates of employment and unemployment for the whole of Australia, as well as for each state and territory.

Key use of data:

• Informs male/female and part-time/full-time job ratios.

ABS- Overseas arrivals and departures (OAD)

Provides information on international travellers arriving in and departing from Australia.

Key use of data:

• Used in calculating the average spend per international visitor.
• Informs calculations for consumption of items where market prices are not available.

Deriving economic measures

Step 1: Deriving tourism output at purchasers’ prices (PP)

Step 2: Deriving tourism output at basic prices (BP)

Step 3: Splitting tourism output at BP to domestic production and imports

Step 4: Industry distribution of tourism products

Step 5: Allocate direct and indirect tourism activity

Step 6: Deriving total intermediate use (TIU) and gross value added (GVA)

Step 1: Deriving tourism output at purchasers’ prices (PP)

Estimates of tourism expenditure are provided via the NVS and IVS, with some exceptions. Data for airfare and education expenditure by international visitors is obtained from balance of payments while the purchase of motor vehicles by domestic visitors is modelled using a range of sources and assumptions. 

In addition, information from the national accounts is used to derive consumption estimates for goods and services provided to visitors at discounted prices or for free, for example, admission to public galleries. Imputed rent on vacation homes is also derived using NVS and IVS data on nights stayed in own vacation home together with average rents calculated from NVS data.

Expenditure is allocated to tourism products and adjusted when necessary. For example, the NVS and IVS collect expenditure on package tours which for TSA purposes needs to be split into tourism product dimensions, such as accommodation and transport. (See classification section for an outline of tourism products). Adjustments are applied to ensure only domestic expenditure is captured. For example, a visitor may have acquired services from a travel agency at their place of residence.

This process delivers product level tourism consumption by overseas travellers, residential travellers, and business/government travellers at PP.

Step 2: Deriving tourism output at basic prices (BP)

National accounts Input-Output tables are used to inform ratios of BP, margins, taxes, and subsidies for each product to output at PP. This process specifically used data related to household final consumption expenditure. These ratios are then applied to tourism output at PP estimates. As the Input-Output data is only available up to two years behind the reference period, ratios for the forward years are imputed using Supply-Use and other information.

The margin components of the above process that have a direct relationship to visitors (retail margins and some wholesale and transport margins), are added on to tourism output at BP and allocated to the appropriate margin product.

Step 3: Splitting tourism output at BP to domestic production and imports

For each tourism product, Australian production and import estimates are divided by total tourism production at BP (from Input-Output tables) to generate ratios. These ratios are multiplied by the tourism supply at BP to estimate Australian production and import estimates of products produced to serve the visitor economy at BP. As the Input-Output data are only available up to two years behind the reference period, ratios for the forward years are imputed using Supply-Use and other information.

Input-Output net expenditure overseas (NEO) import adjustments produced in the National Accounts are removed from the tourism import estimate informing the ratio. This is because domestically purchased products by visitors are not in scope of NEO imports.

Step 4: Industry distribution of tourism products

The supply matrix in the national accounts Supply Use tables is used to inform product level ratios of industry supply at BP. These ratios are applied to tourism output at BP by product. This provides tourism output by industry. These data are only available up to the year prior to the reference period and are generally held constant for the current year. For industries where the Supply Use tables do not have sufficient detail, data from the Economic Activity Survey (EAS) are used to inform industry distribution.

Step 5: Allocate direct and indirect tourism activity

Direct and indirect tourism output is allocated according to the dimensions of the industry and product being provided. The allocation is informed by the general characteristics of the industry that supplies the product, the nature of the product itself, and the probability of a direct relationship with tourists.

Regarding the direct and indirect allocation of tourism taxes on products, all taxes on service products are categorised as direct taxes. In the case of goods, the ratio of downstream taxes to total taxes is calculated from the Input-Output tables and then applied to the tourism taxes on products estimate. These downstream taxes are assigned to indirect taxes with the remaining amounts classified as direct taxes. 

Step 6: Deriving total intermediate use (TIU) and gross value added (GVA)

Ratios of Total Industry Intermediate Use (TIU) to the total output at BP for each industry are calculated from the Supply Use tables. These ratios are then applied to the industry-level direct tourism output at BP, resulting in the industry-level gross value added (GVA) and TIU of the tourism economy. These data are available up to the year behind the reference period and are held constant for the current year.

For industries where the Supply Use tables do not provide sufficient detail, information from the EAS is used.

Additional processes

Deriving tourism employment

The tourism GVA is divided by the total GVA for each industry to calculate a tourism GVA ratio. This ratio is then applied to the employment (filled jobs and main jobs) estimates for each industry to determine the corresponding figures for tourism. The employment estimates for each industry are sourced from the Australian Labour Account. It is important to note that this method assumes a direct correlation between the employment generated by tourism and the value added by tourism in each industry.

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) provides part-time, full-time, male, and female employment statistics for each industry. These data are used to split the tourism estimates of filled jobs and main jobs.

Deriving tourism hours worked

A similar process to tourism employment is used to derive tourism hours worked. However, the Australian Labour Account cannot provide the same level of industry detail for hours worked as available for employment. Specifically, the following sectors are excluded: road, rail, water and other transport sectors; travel agency and information centre services; and all other industries. Given that these sectors contribute relatively less to tourism, their exclusion is not expected to significantly affect the final estimate. Data are only published in index form to provide an indicator of change over time.

The Tourism Gross Value Added per Hours Worked Index, shown in Table 2.1, measures the change in GVA in CVM terms relative to the hours worked in the visitor economy. This index is based on the previous year, with the reference period for this year being 2022-23. CVM is used instead of current prices to better reflect productivity within the tourism industry, as it accounts for the hours of effort needed to produce a given volume of tourism output.

Deriving tourism chain volume measures

Direct Tourism GVA - Tourism GVA chain volume estimates are derived from tourism output minus tourism intermediate use in prices of the previous period. A volume index is then compiled, and this index is chained taking account of the price relativities from year to year. The index is then converted to chain volume values by using the current price index ratio from the reference year.

Direct Tourism output - needs to be derived in volume terms to calculate tourism GVA. Tourism output product level deflators are a mix of consumer price indexes (CPI) and producer price indexes (PPI). These have been used to derive the prices in the previous year for each tourism sub-industry and total tourism output to derive tourism industry output volume index(es). This is then chained (linked) together to derive the chain volume index which is applied to the current price index ratio to arrive at chain volume estimates. The indexes are re-referenced to equal 100 in the reference year.

Direct Tourism intermediate use - chain volume estimates of tourism intermediate use (by tourism sub-industry) are estimated by deflating the corresponding tourism current price estimates. These estimates are deflated using industry level implicit price deflators (IPD) derived from unpublished Supply Use tables (for each tourism related industry). Implicit price deflators are used rather than a broader measure such as All groups CPI, as they are more reflective of the costs associated with producing the relevant industry's output. Adjustments are made as required to selected tourism industries' chain volume output or intermediate use estimates to ensure the GVA estimates are consistent with real world observations.

Direct Tourism Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - to arrive at tourism GDP, tourism GVA in prices of the previous period is added to tourism net taxes on products in prices of the previous period. A volume index is then compiled, and the index converted to chain volume values by using the current price ratio from the reference year.

Direct Tourism Consumption by Product - tourism consumption is deflated at the tourism product level, for example, accommodation services and taxi fares. The products are deflated using a mix of indexes from CPI and PPI, and the implicit price deflator for dwelling rent. Volume indexes are derived, chained and converted to chain volume values.

Tourism Implicit Price Deflator - the tourism implicit price deflator, or tourism price index, is calculated as the ratio of the current price value of tourism GVA (or Tourism GDP) to its corresponding chain volume value, multiplied by 100. The advantage of using an implicit price deflator for measuring price change for the tourism industry over a general measure of price change such as the CPI, is that the implicit price deflator accounts for compositional shifts in the basket of products consumed (or produced) from year to year, unlike the fixed weighted CPI. Users should be aware that implicit price deflators are revised annually with re-referencing and therefore are not recommended for purposes such as indexing in legal contracts.

To provide a more granular analysis of products and industries than what is usually available in national accounts, data modelling and certain assumptions are required. One such assumption is that the input-output relationships used to estimate tourism products by industry are consistent with the total production of the industry at large. However, it is important to note that this assumption may not always accurately represent real-world production characteristics.

The estimates presented in this publication are compiled from a diverse array of statistical sources. While some of these sources align closely with the desired national accounting framework, others do not, leading to variations in coverage, conceptual definitions, and timing. Many of the tourism industries and products are more granular or do not directly align with the industry and product details contained in the national Supply-Use tables. While concerted efforts have been made to enhance survey coverage of tourism industries, the derived estimates carry a higher degree of uncertainty compared to the less detailed estimates published in the national accounts.

Data on tourism expenditure, a crucial element of the TSA, are typically sourced from large-scale visitor surveys. These scientifically designed surveys, yield high-quality estimates, albeit with some degree of sampling variability. The confidence intervals for any given estimate are available in the respective NVS and IVS publications. To align the visitor survey data with the TSA’s requisite concepts and classifications, the data have been dissected and rearranged.

The most significant assumption in the compilation of a TSA relates to the use of the tourism product ratios and the tourism industry ratios in the calculation of tourism-related monetary and employment aggregates. The default assumption is that the input requirements of tourism and non-tourism output are identical for an industry. While this is likely to be a more valid assumption for fine level industries where industry output is relatively homogenous (such as the taxi transport industry), there will be some instances where the assumption may be less valid. This is more likely to be the case where the tourism specialisation ratio of the industry is low, and a diverse range of products are produced.

Estimates of employment figures and hours worked in the TSA are calculated by applying industry value added ratios to industry estimates sourced from the Australian Labour Account. It is assumed that the employment created by tourism within each industry is directly proportional to the value added by tourism. However, it’s important to note that there may be discrepancies in the timing between the increase or decrease in value added, particularly during periods of rapid inflationary growth, and changes in the number of jobs or work hours.

Most figures are subject to revision as more complete and accurate information becomes available.

Measurement error

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted many industries and led to structural changes in the economy. Robust methods, data confrontation and quality control processes are used to minimise the impact of measurement error. However, some inherent and unavoidable measurement error exists in all statistics.

The TSA estimates are constructed based on the most accurate data and information available at the time of estimation. Nevertheless, the construction of these estimates involves some modelling assumptions. Modelling error may increase during periods of rapid change. Additionally, these estimates are subject to revisions as more information becomes available over time.

2023-24

A comprehensive review of the methods and data sources used to compile the TSA was conducted for the 2023-24 release. This resulted in changes to all economic variables in the TSA, including tourism consumption. In addition, the method for calculating direct net taxes on goods has been revised to reflect that tourists pay the full amount of upstream taxes (GST and sales tax). 

Tourism GVA, net taxes and GDP have been revised back to 2004-05. However, the time series at the industry and product level, as well as tourism employment has only been updated back to 2016-17.

The table names, numbering and applicable time series in the data cubes available for downloading have been revised as per the following table.

Tourism industry classification changes

The Rail transport industry has been relabelled as Rail passenger transport to better reflect the tourism aspect of this industry. Similarly, Other road transport is now Other road passenger transport, and Air, water and other transport is now Air, water and other passenger transport. 

Tourism product classification changes

Taxi fares has been relabelled as Taxi fares (including ride share) to better reflect what is captured under this product. Similarly, Motor vehicle hire and lease has been relabelled as Motor vehicle (including caravans) hire and lease.

2022-23

The 2022-23 account has implemented changes to the methodology that derives tourism output at basic price, tourism taxes on products, tourism margins and tourism imports. Data was revised back to 2019-20, which was the previous annual coefficient benchmark.

2021-22

Preliminary coefficient benchmarking was introduced using Supply Use data from the period prior to the current reference year. Time series data was only updated back to the previous full coefficient benchmark, that is back to 2018-19. See Methodology page from the Tourism Satellite Account 2021-22 publication.

2020-21

Annual coefficient benchmarking was adopted to better reflect the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data for the benchmark is based on Input-Output data which is only available two years behind the current reference period. Time series data was only updated back to the previous benchmark, that is back to 2016-17. See Methodology page from the Tourism Satellite Account 2020-21 publication.

2018-19

The last full benchmark was conducted where the full time series was updated.