9502.0.55.001 - Framework for Australian Tourism Statistics, 1999  
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Contents >> Chapter 3. Typical measures for tourism >> Typical measures for CONSUMERS

Introduction

6. This topic elaborates on the 'Typical Measures' for the CONSUMER element of the event and provides definitions and classifications where relevant.

Number of visitors

7. This is the basic unit of measurement of the various types of visitors to a destination region or country.

Purpose of visit

8. Data on purpose of visit are essential to identify the various types of visitors. Each type has its own behavioural, product consumption and expenditure patterns.

9. It is common for a visitor to have more than one 'purpose of visit'. For example, a person travelling primarily for business reasons may extend the visit for holiday purposes. It may be useful for some collections to ask for 'Main purpose of visit' and 'Secondary purpose of visit'. However, before doing so it would be useful to consider how and if data on secondary purpose would actually be used.

10. The UN/WTO standards define 'main purpose of visit' as: "The purpose in the absence of which the trip would not have taken place."

11. This definition is easily applied for the majority of visitors. However, for some visitors it does need some consideration. Typical cases are:

      • dependants or other persons accompanying travellers, such as children, spouses or servants: these should be allocated the same 'purpose of visit' as the accompanied traveller, on the basis that they would not be visiting if the accompanied person had not been visiting. For example, a person accompanying his/her spouse on a business trip should be categorised as 'Business', even though s/he may primarily be travelling for pleasure purposes. This principle is adopted on the basis that the 'pleasure' trip would not have taken place if the 'business' trip had not occurred.
      • a person who travels to a place for business purposes but who stays on, possibly for a longer period, for pleasure purposes. While most of this visitor's activities and expenditure might relate to his/her pleasure stay, the 'main purpose of visit' is identified as 'business' on the basis that the pleasure part of the trip would not have occurred had it not been for the business purpose.
12. The following is the standard UN/WTO classification of purpose of visit.

      UN/WTO CLASSIFICATION: PURPOSE OF VISIT

1.
    Leisure, recreation and holidays
      Includes sight-seeing, shopping, attending sporting and cultural events, recreation and cultural activities, non-professional active sports, trekking and mountaineering, use of beaches, cruises, gambling, rest and recreation for armed forces, summer camp, honeymooning, etc.;

2.
    Visiting friends and relatives
      Includes visits to relatives or friends, home leave, attending funerals, care of invalids;

3.
    Business and professional
      Includes installing equipment, inspection, purchases, sales for foreign enterprises; attending meetings, conferences or congresses, trade fairs and exhibitions; employer incentive tours; giving lectures or concerts; programming tourist travel, contracting of accommodation and transport, working as guides and other tourism professionals; participation in professional sports activities; government missions, including diplomatic, military or international organisation personnel, except when stationed on duty in the country visited; paid study, education and research, such as university sabbatical leaves, language, professional or other special courses in connection with and supported by visitor's business or profession;

4.
    Health treatment
      Includes spas, fitness, thalassotherapy, health resorts and other treatments and cures;

5.
    Religion/pilgrimages
      Includes attending religious events, pilgrimages;

6.
    Other
      Includes aircraft and ship crews on public carriers, transit and others or unknown.

13. It is desirable that the classification used in Australia be compatible with this international standard. It is recommended that the following classification be used.

      AUSTRALIAN CLASSIFICATION OF PURPOSE OF VISIT

1.
    Leisure, recreation and holidays
1.1
    Holidays
1.2
    Sport
1.3
    Shopping
1.4
    Other personal activities
2.
    Visiting friends and relatives
3.
    Business and professional
3.1
    Business
3.2
    Convention/conference
3.3
    Training and research
4.
    Education (incl. school excursions)
5.
    Other
5.1
    Health treatment
5.2
    Religion/pilgrimages
5.3
    All others
6.
    Employment/leisure

14. As discussed in Chapter 2, persons travelling for employment purposes are not included in the definition of visitors. However, in Australia significant numbers of people travel for temporary employment purposes, and spend a significant part of their trip on leisure purposes. It is recognised that statistics on such travellers are required, even though they are not officially defined as 'visitors' and 'employment' is not included as a purpose of visit. Because of this, it is recommended that statistical collections should collect data on such travellers, but identify them under a separate category, '6. Employment/leisure'. However, where the trip is clearly predominantly for leisure purposes, and working is a minor part of the trip, the purpose of visit should be recorded as '1. Leisure, recreation and holidays'.

15. The Purpose of visit classification recognises a distinction between 'training' and 'education'. Category '3.3 Training and research' is included as a sub-set of '3. Business and professional' as it comprises persons who are in the workforce in their place of residence and who are undertaking some form of training or research relating to their job. Category '4. Education' comprises persons who are not in the workforce in their place of residence and who are undertaking longer term education, eg. students.

Date of arrival

16. The month of arrival of a visitor at a destination should be recorded to provide seasonal data on visitor movements. In some surveys, however, such as household surveys of domestic visitors, for practical collection reasons, it may be more appropriate to classify visitors according to the month they returned to their place of usual residence.

Duration of visit (stay or trip)

17. For classifying tourism trips in general and, even more so, leisure and holiday trips in particular, the duration of the visit is an important statistical variable.

18. Duration of visit can be expressed in terms of duration of stay or duration of trip.

19. The duration of stay is the measurement used from the standpoint of the destination country or place (ie. how many nights spent in the country or place), whereas the duration of trip is, logically, the measure used by the origin country or place (ie. how many nights spent away from the country or place).

20. The duration of visit (stay or trip) is measured in units of the number of hours for Same-day visitors, and the number of nights for Overnight visitors. For international tourism, the duration is measured either in terms of time spent in Australia for Inbound tourism, or time away from Australia for Outbound tourism.

21. For classifying duration of stay or trip for Overnight visitors the following intervals of number of nights are recommended:


      CLASSIFICATION OF DURATION OF VISIT FOR OVERNIGHT VISITORS

Number of Nights
1.
      1 to 3 nights
1.1.
      1
1.2.
      2 to 3

2.

      4 to 7 nights

3.

      8 to 28 nights
3.1.
      8 to 14
3.2.
      15 to 21
3.3.
      22 to 28

4.

      29 to 91
4.1.
      29 to 42
4.2.
      43 to 56
4.3.
      57 to 70
4.4.
      71 to 91

5.

      92 to 365
5.1.
      92 to 182
5.2.
      183 to 365

22. For classifying duration of stay or trip for Same-day visitors the following intervals of number of hours are recommended:

      CLASSIFICATION OF DURATION OF VISIT FOR SAME-DAY VISITORS

Number of hours
1.
      Less than 3 hours
1.1.
      Less than 2
1.2.
      2

2.

      3 to 5 hours
2.1.
      3
2.2.
      4
2.3.
      5

3.

      6 to 8 hours
3.1.
      6
3.2.
      7
3.3.
      8

4.

      9 to 11 hours

5.

      12 hours or more

Place of residence

23. The place or country of usual residence is important as it is one of the key criteria for determining whether a traveller is a visitor or not. In the case of international travellers, country of residence is one of the criteria for identifying visitors from other types of travellers (ie. residents of Australia). For many research and policy purposes it is important to identify the source regions for domestic visitors and the source countries for international visitors to a destination area.

Place of residence for international visitors

24. The country of residence of an international visitor is defined as the country in which the visitor:

      • has lived for most of the past year (12 months); or
      • has lived in for a shorter period and intends to return to within 12 months to live.

25. There are a number of available classifications of countries and territories developed for specific purposes. One such system is the Standard Australian Classification of Countries 1998 (Cat. no. 1269.0). This system has been developed by the ABS following consultation with interested potential users, including tourism organisations, and is recommended for adoption by tourism statistics collectors and users. This system is used as a standard classification for ABS collections, such as the Population Census and labour force statistics. It is also being adopted by the Department of Immigration and other government departments.

26. The classification is a three level hierarchical system, in which the levels are represented by a 1-digit, 2-digit and 4-digit code, respectively. The following summary list shows the 1-digit level of detail. For the full list of countries see Standard Australian Classification of Countries 1998 (Cat. no. 1269.0).
        1. Oceania and Antarctica

        2.
         Europe and the former USSR

        3.
         The Middle East and North Africa

        4.
         Southeast Asia

        5.
         Northeast Asia

        6.
         Southern Asia

        7.
         Northern America

        8.
         South America, Central America and the Caribbean

        9.
         Africa (excluding North Africa)

Place of residence for domestic visitors

27. The ABS has developed the Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) for use in the collection and publication of its own statistics, and encourages other organisations to use this classification in their own statistical work. It is recommended that this be adopted as the classification for identifying place of residence of domestic visitors. This will allow comparisons between tourism statistical collections and other ABS collections which may or may not be directly related to tourism, eg. the Population Census and labour force surveys. The ASGC incorporates a number of types of geographical areas, or 'spatial units'. For tourism statistics, the adoption of a hierarchical system comprising, in ascending order, Statistical Local Areas (SLAs), Statistical Sub-divisions (SSDs), Statistical Divisions (SDs), and States and Territories (S/Ts), is recommended.

28. The numbers of each 'spatial unit' in each State/Territory are:



Spatial Unit
NSW
Vic
Qld
SA
WA
Tas
NT
ACT
Other Terr
Aust

S/T
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
8
SDs
13
12
12
8
10
5
3
2
1
65
SSDs
43
45
30
21
26
9
11
8
1
193
SLAs
189
200
449
126
151
44
63
107
3
133

29. It is not expected that, in many cases, statistics on place of residence would be required at the SLA level, and in most cases it is likely that the greatest level of detail required and allowed by the collection would be no lower than SSD level. However, some studies may require statistics on persons residing in a geographic region which can be defined in terms of groups of SLAs.

30. The recommended ASGC classification listed below provides detail down to the Statistical Division level. For detail down to Statistical Local Area level refer to the ABS publication Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC), (Cat. no. 1216.0).

      AUSTRALIAN STANDARD GEOGRAPHICAL CLASSIFICATION

1. NEW SOUTH WALES
05
    Sydney
40
    Central West
10
    Hunter
45
    South Eastern
15
    Illawarra
50
    Murrumbidgee
20
    Richmond-Tweed
55
    Murray
25
    Mid-North Coast
60
    Far West
30
    Northern
85
    Off-Shore Areas & Migratory
35
    North Western

2. VICTORIA
05
    Melbourne
35
    Loddon
10
    Barwon
40
    Goulburn
15
    Western District
45
    Ovens-Murray
20
    Central Highlands
50
    East Gippsland
25
    Wimmera
55
    Gippsland
30
    Mallee
85
    Off-Shore & Migratory

3. QUEENSLAND
05
    Brisbane
35
    Central West
10
    Moreton
40
    Mackay
15
    Wide Bay-Burnett
45
    Northern
20
    Darling Downs
50
    Far North
25
    South West
55
    North West
30
    Fitzroy
85
    Off-Shore Areas & Migratory

4. SOUTH AUSTRALIA
05
    Adelaide
25
    South East
10
    Outer Adelaide
30
    Eyre
15
    Yorke and Lower North
35
    Northern
20
    Murray Lands
85
    Off-Shore Areas & Migratory

5. WESTERN AUSTRALIA
05
    Perth
30
    South Eastern
10
    South West
35
    Central
15
    Lower Great Southern
40
    Pilbara
20
    Upper Great Southern
45
    Kimberley
25
    Midlands
85
    Off-Shore Areas & Migratory

6. TASMANIA
05
    Greater Hobart
20
    Mersey-Lyell
10
    Southern
85
    Off-Shore Areas & Migratory
15
    Northern

7. NORTHERN TERRITORY
05
    Darwin
85
    Off-Shore Areas & Migratory
10
    Northern Territory - Bal

8. AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY
05
    Canberra
10
    Australian Capital Territory - Bal

9. OTHER TERRITORIES
10
    Other Territories

Nationality

31. For International visitors, it may be of interest to have data on country of citizenship in addition to country of residence. Citizenship data are often of value for market research purposes in identifying particular communities within a country which may be a potential, or actual, target market.

32. The nationality of a visitor is that of the government issuing his/her passport (or other identification document), even if s/he normally resides in another country.

33. It is recommended that the Standard Australian Classification of Countries, 1998 (Cat. no. 1269.0) be used to classify nationality.

Destination

34. It is important that a classification system of destination regions is available for tourism statistics collections. Much of the tourism data are only of importance, or of particular interest at the small area level. The Australian Standard Geographic Classification (ASGC), as outlined in the topic 'Place of residence' in Chapter 3, should be used to define the boundaries of destination regions. Regions can be defined in terms of groups of Statistical Local Areas (SLAs). This enables comparison or linkage of tourism data with other collections, such as the population census, labour force statistics, etc.

35. The Bureau of Tourism Research publishes data for Tourism Regions. As it is important to be able to compare tourism regional statistics with other regional statistics, it is necessary to have a comparison between the BTR's standard tourism regions and the ASGC, which provides the standard regions for other official statistics. A concordance between the BTR's tourism regions and the ASGC has been developed, and is included in Appendix 2. The BTR's tourism regions are as follows.


BTR TOURISM REGIONS

New South Wales
South Coast
Hunter
Illawarra
Mid North Coast
Sydney
Holiday Coast
Snowy Mountains
Northern Rivers
Capital Country
New England/North West
Murray
Outback
Riverina
Central Coast
Central West
Blue Mountains

Victoria
Mallee
Upper Yarra
Wimmera
Melbourne East
Western Grampians
Central Murray
Central Highlands
Goulburn
Western
High Country
Geelong
Murray East
Bendigo Loddon
Lakes
Spa Country
Gippsland
Ballarat
Phillip Island
Macedon
Melbourne
Peninsula

Queensland
Gold Coast
Fitzroy
Brisbane
Mackay
Sunshine Coast
Northern
Hervey Bay/Maryborough
Tropical North Queensland
Brisbane Valley & Hinterland
Outback
Darling Downs
Great Barrier Reef
Bundaberg

South Australia
South East
Mid North
Murraylands
Flinders Ranges
Fleurieu Peninsula
Far North
Adelaide
Eyre Peninsula
Barossa Valley
Yorke Peninsula
Riverland
Kangaroo Island

Western Australia
South East
Perth
Goldfields
Peel
Midwest
South West
Gascoyne
Great Southern
Pilbara
Wheatbelt
Kimberley

Tasmania
Greater Hobart
Greater Launceston
Southern
North West
East Coast
West Coast
Northern

Northern Territory
Darwin
Petermann
Kakadu
Alice Springs
Arnhem
Macdonnell
Katherine
Daly
Tablelands

Australian Capital Territory

Canberra


36. Each tourism trip can have only one main destination, even though several destinations may be visited. The main destination is defined as: "the place or country where more time was spent than in any other during the trip". In the case of overnight visits, the main destination should be considered the place in which most nights were spent. If the number of nights spent in two or more places is the same, the main destination should be considered to be the place furthest from the visitor's place of residence.

Sex

37. This should be recorded in all collections as an essential variable to identify types of visitors.

Age

38. Age data on visitors should be classified according to the age (in years) of visitors as at their last birthday. Months should be ignored. A visitor who is 14 years and 10 months of age should be classified as age 14. This is consistent with other data series, such as the Population Census, and also with the system of price discounting for age groups used by many organisations, such as airlines.

39. The following suggested classification of ages is designed to broadly reflect five major market segments, that is

      • Children, mainly travelling with their parents;
      • Youngsters, constituting the important market of youth travel;
      • Relatively young, economically active people;
      • Middle-aged, economically active people; and
      • Retired people.
For the first category, a further breakdown is suggested for greater detail.

      CLASSIFICATION OF VISITORS' AGE GROUPS

Age in years at last birthday
1
    0 to 14 years
1.1
    Less than 1
1.2
    1 to 5
1.3
    6 to 11
1.4
    12 to 14
2
    15 to 24
3
    25 to 44
4
    45 to 64
5
    65 years and over

Marital status

40. Data on marital status should be collected for visitors 15 years and over. It is recommended that the following classification be adopted:


    CLASSIFICATION OF MARITAL STATUS

1
    Married (incl. de facto)
2
    Separated/Divorced
3
    Widowed
4
    Never married

41. 'Married' should include de facto relationships, and any marriages resulting from traditional, customary tribal or modern ceremonies, whether legally registered or not. Where a visitor is separated (or widowed) but is now in a de facto relationship he/she should be classified as 'Married'.

Level of education

42. The level of education should be identified as the highest level completed. The following classification is recommended:


    CLASSIFICATION OF LEVEL OF EDUCATION

1
    Primary education not completed
2
    Completed primary education
3
    Completed secondary education
4
    Completed post-secondary vocational or technical training
5
    Completed bachelor degree or higher

43. 'Primary education not completed' includes children who may or may not currently be attending primary school but who have not completed all grades.

44. 'Completed primary education' includes children who have completed primary school and who are currently either not attending school or are now attending secondary school.

45. 'Completed secondary education' includes children who have completed secondary school and who are currently either not attending school or are now attending a post-secondary institution.

46. 'Completed post-secondary vocational or technical training' should only include qualifications which require at least one year full time study (or part time equivalent). Completion of short-term courses should not be included.

Economic activity status

47. The economic activity status of a visitor relates to his/her normal daily economic activity, or lack of such activity. The classification below is based on International Labour Organisation (ILO) standards.


      CLASSIFICATION OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY STATUS

1
    In labour force
1.1
    Employed
1.2
    Unemployed
2
    Not in labour force
2.1
    Students
2.2
    Homemakers
2.3
    Income recipients
2.4
    Others

48. 'Employed' comprises persons who, immediately prior to the trip, were working for payment, profit, commission or payment in kind or as a contributing family worker (ie. in a family business or subsistence work). It should include employers as well as employees. (Note: Temporary absence from work immediately prior to the trip should be ignored.) It should include persons who are working part-time.

49. 'Unemployed' comprises persons who, immediately prior to the trip, did not have a job but were actively looking for full-time or part-time work and were available to start work.

50. 'Not in labour force - Others' includes persons in institutions or otherwise unable to work.

Occupation

51. The Australian Standard Classification of Occupations (ASCO), Second Edition (1997), provides a classification which can be used to categorise visitors, and which allows for comparison with other statistical collections.

52. The structure of ASCO is based on kind of work done, defined in terms of two broad criteria, that is: skill level and skill specialisation. ASCO Second Edition has five levels of detail, each identified by the number of digits in the code number.



Level
No. of groups in each level
No. of digits in code numbers

Major group
9
1
Sub-major group
35
2
Minor group
81
3
Unit group
340
4
Occupation
986
6

53. The following list shows the classification down to the 2 digit (Sub-major group) level. For classification down to the 6 digit (Occupation) level, or for definitions of Occupations, refer to the ASCO publication (Cat. no. 1220.0).

    CLASSIFICATION OF OCCUPATIONS

1. Managers and Administrators
11
    Generalist and Administrators
12
    Specialist Managers
13
    Farmers and Farm Managers

2. Professionals
21
    Science, Building and Engineering Professionals
22
    Business and Information Professionals
23
    Health Professionals
24
    Education Professionals
25
    Social, Arts and Miscellaneous Professionals

3. Associate Professionals
31
    Science, Engineering and Related Associate Professionals
32
    Business and Administrative Associate Professionals
33
    Managing Supervisors (Sales and Service)
34
    Health and Welfare Associate Professionals
39
    Other Associate Professionals

4. Tradespersons and Related Workers
41
    Mechanical and Fabrication Engineering Tradespersons
42
    Automotive Tradespersons
43
    Electrical and Electronics Tradespersons
44
    Construction Tradespersons
45
    Food Tradespersons
46
    Skilled Agricultural and Horticultural Workers
49
    Other Tradespersons and Related Workers

5. Advanced Clerical and Service Workers
51
    Secretaries and Personal Assistants
59
    Other Advanced Clerical and Service Workers

6. Intermediate Clerical, Sales and Service Workers
61
    Intermediate Clerical Workers
62
    Intermediate Sales and Related Workers
63
    Intermediate Service Workers

7. Intermediate Production and Transport Workers
71
    Intermediate Plant Operators
72
    Intermediate Machine Operators
73
    Road and Rail Transport Drivers
79
    Other Intermediate Production and Transport Workers

8. Elementary Clerical, Sales and Service Workers
81
    Elementary Clerks
82
    Elementary Sales Workers
83
    Elementary Service Workers

9. Labourers and Related Workers
91
    Cleaners
92
    Factory Labourers
99
    Other Labourers and Related Workers

Income level

54. For data on income of visitors, it is recommended that the following classification, which is based on the standard income ranges used in the 1996 Population Census, be adopted.


    CLASSIFICATION OF INCOME LEVELS

Weekly Income ($A)
Annual equivalent ($A)

Nil (or negative)
Nil (or negative)
1 -79
1 - 4,200
80 - 159
4,200 - 8,300
160 - 299
8,300 - 15,600
300 - 499
15,600 - 26,000
500 - 699
26,000 - 36,400
700 - 999
36,400 - 52,000
1,000 - 1,499
52,000 - 78,000
1,500 +
78,000 +

55. For small sample surveys, groupings of these categories should be used.

56. Income recorded should be gross income, ie. before tax and other deductions, for the 12 months prior to undertaking the trip. It should include, as much as possible, wages, salaries, overtime, dividends, interest, family allowance, pensions, rents received, business or farm income (less operating expenses), and superannuation and workers' compensation received.

57. Income data for international visitors should be collected in the currency of their country of residence and converted to $A using the exchange rate in effect at the time of the survey.

Number of persons in party

58. A visitor might travel as part of a 'party' and/or a 'group'. A 'party' comprises a number of visitors travelling together and whose expenditure is from a common pool. A typical example is a family on holiday together. A 'group' comprises a number of visitors travelling together but who are each responsible for their own expenditure. A typical example would be people travelling on the same bus tour. A 'group' could comprise a number of 'parties' and individual travellers.

59. The size and make-up of the party in which a visitor is travelling can have a significant effect on his/her trip activity and expenditure. Persons travelling singly have different patterns of activity and expenditure from those travelling in a party.

60. For some studies, it may be required to allocate a proportion of the total party expenditure to individuals in the party. As a broad recommendation, total expenditure might be broken down on the basis of expenditure by infants less than 1 year old as nil; expenditure by children 1 to 5 years old as 10% of that of an adult; and expenditure by youths 6 to 14 years old being 75% of that of an adult.

61. For research purposes it might be useful to know how many people are travelling in parties. This could be even more useful if cross-tabulated, for example, with the age distribution of the party members, such as:




Total
Age distribution
Number
in party
0-14
years
15-24
years
25- 44
years
45-64
years
65 years
and over

1
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
2
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
3
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .
etc.
. .
. .
. .
. .
. .






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