Tourism satellite account framework

23.42    The supply-use tables for the Australian economy provide the framework in which data for visitor expenditure (demand) and industry output (supply) are integrated and made consistent in the ATSA benchmark process. Moreover, they provide the means of calculating direct tourism gross value added and direct tourism GDP.

23.43    The Supply table is a matrix showing (in the rows) the basic price values of products produced by each major industry. It also shows the supply of products from imports, and the net taxes on products and trade and transport margins that are required to derive supply at purchasers' prices. The Use table shows the use of each product, both as intermediate consumption by industries and in domestic final demand and exports. The use table also shows the primary inputs (compensation of employees and gross operating surplus) required by each industry.

23.44    The supply-use tables are brought to balance so that the supply of each product equals its use. Some disaggregation of the products and industries shown in the standard tables is required, as the objective of the ATSA is to focus on tourism-related products, and the industries that produce them. It is therefore necessary to augment the standard supply-use tables. The non-tourism products and industries are compressed for operational convenience in constructing the ATSA, but the details remain in the underlying supply-use tables.

23.45    An important characteristic of tourism products is that they are not uniquely defined by their nature, but by who purchases them. Therefore, the consumption of each product has to be divided into the part consumed by visitors and the part consumed by non-visitors. This information is used to partition industries into their tourism and non-tourism components, enabling the derivation of direct tourism value added and direct tourism GDP.

23.46    An important part of the compilation process is to check the consistency of data for visitor expenditures on products with the total supply of products. Apparent inconsistencies are resolved by further data investigations and adjustment.