About

Summary

 

Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSA) are the recognised way of measuring the economic importance of tourism using the same concepts, classifications and definitions used for measuring other sectors of the economy such as manufacturing, agriculture and mining.  They therefore sit within a system of national accounts, and allow indicators such as tourism gross value added and tourism GDP to be calculated.

 

Tourism is a significant sector within the Falkland Islands economy.  This study was commissioned to undertake a first TSA for the Falkland Islands in 2009, with a base year of 2007.  Acorn has been involved in updating the TSA every year since.

 

Our Approach

 

Developing a TSA requires robust data measuring both the supply and demand sides of tourism.  Supply-side data was collected from the national accounts surveys and tax records compiled by the Falkland Islands Government.  We undertook an additional survey of tourism businesses to capture additional information that was not otherwise available.

 

Demand-side data was already available through the air, cruise and domestic tourism surveys that Acorn had established in the Falkland Islands from 2008.  These provided comprehensive data on visitor expenditure in the Islands.

 

The compilation of the various tables of the satellite account included Table 1: Inbound Tourism Consumption, Table 2: Domestic Tourism Consumption, Table 4: Internal Tourism Consumption, Table 5: Output of the Tourism Industries, Table 6: Reconciliation of Demand and Supply, Table 7: Tourism Employment, and Table 10: Non-Monetary Indicators (such as accommodation occupancy and number of tourism businesses).

 

Outcome

 

The TSA found that tourism contributed 4.3% of GDP in the Falkland Islands, excluding fisheries and oil/gas exploration.  This amounted to tourism gross value added of £3.8 million and internal tourism expenditure of £9.3 million.