TOURISM STATISTICS:-
Statistics involves a systematic collection of data on measurement or observations, often related to demographic information such as population count, incomes, age categories, etc.
Definition of tourism statistics:-
Tourism statistics can be defined as the collection of data about every aspect of tourism, analyzing the data so collected and coming out with an interpretation of what the data is saying with the view of making some predictions based on findings from the analysis.
Tourism statistics give you information about the tourism industry in Nigeria. Such as
expenditure by domestic and international visitors (tourists), contribution to GDP (gross domestic product), tourism employment eg tour guides, hotel cleaners, cookers, photographers, travel agents, etc. Arrivals and departures by overseas visitors and Nigeria resident travellers.
Statistics about tourism also include information on total expenditure by international tourists in Nigeria less than 12 months, comprising tax fees, living costs, airfares on resident airlines, and other related expenditure. This deals with statistical representation of data related to over all rating scale of tourism in Nigeria, tour destinations in Nigeria (including the most visited), challenges faced in choosing tour destination in Nigeria and sustainable development in tourism.
Types of data expected on this dataset include:
1. Characteristics of tourist: Name, Age, Sex, Origin.
2. Tourist centre characteristics e.g location, available facilities and costs, accessibility including variety of transport available.
3. Tourist expenditure such as average expenses per day, expenditure on travels, fairs
and exhibitions, tourist accommodation in Nigeria viz-a-viz arrivals into hotel, overnight stay, average length of stay, hotel occupancy rate, bed-space occupancy rate, etc.
4. Volume of Tourists: This refers to the number of tourists to a particular centre in a
given year. In practice, this takes us to the number of arrivals or visits rather than number of tourists, as it is impracticable to allow for those who visit the same destination more than once in the year.
*Sources and Methods of Compiling Hotels, Restaurants and Tourism Statistics*
The collection and presentation of functional Hotels and Tourism data require a combination of survey and administrative or routine sources.
Through surveys, the NTDC can obtain raw data on tourism activities within the country
directly from the field, thereby reducing the total dependence on Government and private
agencies.
Administrative sources of data on Hotels and Tourism will include:
[a] The Research Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
[b] National Bureau of Statistics.
[c] Virgin Nigeria Airways.
[d] National Population Commission.
[e] Federal Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
[f] The Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation which coordinates the
activities of:
[i] International Youth Tourist Centre, Jos
[ii] National Travel Bureau.
[iii] Holiday Village and Amusement Parks.
[g] The National Parks Board which coordinates the activities of the country’s six national parks:
[i] Chad Basin National Park.
[ii] Cross River National Park.
[iii] Gashaka Gumti National Park.
[iv] Kainji Lake National Park.
[v] Old Oyo National Park.
[vi] Yankari National Park.
IMPORTANCE OF TOURISM STATISTICS
1. As a monitoring instrument
One of the reasons why tourism statistics is important is that it serves as monitoring tool by which changes in the tourism industry can be tracked over a period of time. There are rapid changes in today’s fast moving world, not excluding the world of tourism; there is the need therefore to track these changes. One of the ways of doing so is through tourism statistics.
2. Ascertain the effectiveness of tourism policy
Another important thing about tourism statistics is that it can be used to determine whether a policy is effective or not. In order for a country to makemaximum gain from tourism, it has to develop certain policies and set goals. In order to check if the policies are working and whether the goals set are being achieved or not, there is the need for tourism statistics.
3. To design marketing strategies
Tourism statistics is important for business people because it helps them to properly compete with their peers in the industry. Tourism is a multi-million global business now and there are several players competing for a share of the
market. Tourism statistics can help them to design strategies to help them better market their products to the world as they gradually increase their share of the market.
4. Evaluation of management decisions
Tourism statistics also helps a management body to be able to ascertain whether a decision that was taken is achieving the results expected. At the beginning of each year, management sets goals for their company to be achieved by the end of a period. From time to time, management needs to evaluate the success or otherwise of the decision so taken. For companies in the tourism sector, tourism statistics can help to make that determination.
5. For national policy formulation
Tourism statistics can provide a lot of information to guide the formulation of national policies on tourism. For example, tourism statistics can determine the demographics on domestic tourism, number of tourists coming in or going out of a country. It can also profile visitors, especially foreign tourists, places they visit, kinds of accommodation they lodge in and their expenditure patterns. All these information can serve as a huge resource in the formulation of national tourism programmes.
6. Create knowledge about the performance of the sector
Every year in many countries, the presentation of the annual budget contains information about every sector of the economy. The budget is most likely to include information about the tourism sector. The Finance Minister needs tourism statistics to determine how the sector had performed the year before and what the plans are for the ensuing year.
7. It facilitate easy fetching of demographic data of individual tourist.
8. It help to get information about characteristics of the tourist centres like locations, available facilities and cost, accessibility including varieties of transport available.
9. It help to obtain information related to tourist expenditure
10. Information about the volume of tourist. Ie the number of tourist visiting and/or departing from a particular tour centre (and destinations) in a given year.
IMPORTANT TERMINOLOGIES IN TOURISM STATISTICS
domestic tourism means visits within a country by visitors who are residents of that country.
inbound tourism means visits to a country by visitors who are not residents of that country.
outbound tourism means visits by residents of a country outside that country.
*Derived groupings:
national tourism means domestic and outbound tourism.
internal tourism means domestic and inbound tourism.
international tourism means inbound and outbound tourism.
Inflow is the 'rate' at which tourists (visitors) arrive in a country while outflow is the rate at which tourist depart from a particular country.
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