Theme 3.05 Tourism
Tourism is an important economic activity in the European Union with a high potential of contributing to higher employment. It comprises a wide variety of products or services and destinations and many different stakeholders are involved with much decentralised areas of competence often at regional and local levels.
Currently, statistics are collected on the supply of and demand for tourist accommodation, as well as on tourism propensity and tourism behaviour of EU residents. The legal basis for this data collection (Council Directive 95/57 and its related Commission Decisions of 9 December 1998 and 10 December 2004 and Council Directive 2006/110) are being updated in order to ensure the quality of the data collection in terms of relevance, comparability, completeness and freshness of the data. A renewed legal act is scheduled to be adopted by the end of 2009. Further, statistics on tourism employment and on indicators related to sustainable and competitive tourism are compiled using existing statistics.
2. Work Programme for 2009
2.1 Key priorities 2009
Developments in tourism statistics in 2009 are driven by increased policy attention to the evidence-based potential and importance of the tourism sector for growth, employment and long-term sustainable development. Enhanced monitoring of compliance with Directive 95/57/EC and the production of a wide range of comprehensive and comparative statistics and analyses will be at the centre of the work.
A renewed legal base, i.e. a Regulation of the Council and the European Parliament on Tourism Statistics is expected to be adopted by the end of 2009.
The results of Eurostat's large-scale project on Tourism satellite accounts (TSAs) will be evaluated and proposals will be made regarding the regular implementation of TSAs in the EU.
Methodological and analytical work on statistics on employment in tourism and on indicators related to sustainable and competitive tourism will be strengthened.
2.2 Objectives 2009
- Produce high quality publications;
- Further improve the timeliness, comparability and completeness of the statistics transmitted by Member States, as well as the efficiency of the data processing, including better validation of data;
- Submit for adoption in 2009 a Commission proposal for a Regulation concerning Community Statistics on Tourism to the European Parliament and Council, updating and revising Council Directive 95/57/EC;
- Produce a draft manual on best practices and recommended guidelines for the compilation of Tourism Satellite Accounts by end of 2009, which could enable a harmonised data collection or TSA compilation in the Member States;
- Improve co-operation with the relevant international organisations as well as with candidate, neighborhood and Mediterranean countries;
- Enrich the tourism statistics available through usage of data from other Eurostat sources, especially as regards tourism employment or sustainability and competitiveness of tourism in Europe.
- Prepare the data transmission, data validation and database management for tourism statistics under the forthcoming Regulation for which data transmission will start in the course of 2010 /2011 (conditional on Objective 103 as described above);
- Subject to the adoption of the legal base (see objective 103 above), prepare a manual of recommended guidelines and methodological definitions for tourism statistics under the forthcoming Regulation.