6533b839fe1ef96bd12a66fe

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Tourism Statistics for Destination Management: The Trips/Arrivals Model

subject

description

Simply counting the number of tourists in a destination is not as simple as one might initially think. The present work intends to formalize a conceptual model by decomposing tourism nights, trips, and average duration of visit in a given destination, in terms of quantities and parameters that only for a small part could be derived from official tourism statistics. On the other hand, most of the quantities and parameters required for determining the number of tourists in a given destination are in general unknown, and need to be (directly or indirectly) estimated. Empirical evidences resulting from a survey on incoming tourism in Sicily are provided, showing the biases affecting supply-side statistics on tourism when they are used as a measure of tourism flows in a destination. The changing nature of demand and the increasing segmentation of the holyday market also raise the need for more accurate, destination-based, information, and the model proposed can assist destination managers and researchers in facing the problem of quantifying and analysing tourism behaviours.