About

Summary

The USAID-funded Jobs, Opportunities and Business Success (JOBS) project had identified tourism as an area of strategic focus.  However, a lack of knowledge of the economic impact of the sector led to the commissioning of this study to review the Inbound Tourism Visitor Survey (ITVS) and potential for the development of a first Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) for Tunisia.  The study also reviewed the broader system of tourism statistics and made recommendations for improving the compilation and dissemination of these.  Training sessions were held with staff from key institutions in Tunisia to discuss the findings and the recommended way forward.

Our Approach

The USAID-funded Jobs, Opportunities and Business Success project (JOBS) had identified tourism as an area of strategic focus.  Lack of accurate information on tourism’s contribution to the economy represented an obstacle for the industry as well as for policy makers.  Implementing a Tourism Satellite Account, as part of the national accounts tables, would greatly improve decision-making in the sector for both policymakers as well as private industry.

The backbone of a Tourism Satellite Account is the International Tourism Visitor Survey (ITVS), which measures visitor expenditure amongst other visitor and trip attributes.  Congruent with JOBS’ tourism workplan, this consultancy established the foundation for TSA implementation by supporting the National Institute of Statistics (INS) and a designated TSA committee (representing different governmental and private sector bodies) in their efforts to prepare a methodology and action plan for TSA compilation.

To undertake this study, we carried out a number of research tasks, and used extensive experience developing international tourism visitor survey and tourism satellite accounts in other countries (including Jordan, Botswana, and Saudi Arabia) to compile the recommendations.  The research tasks included:

• Reviewing all available documentation related to the ITVS
• Reviewing the system of tourism statistics in Tunisia
• Exploring the system of national accounts in Tunisia
• Consultations with the Tunisian National Tourism Office (ONTT) and National Institute of Statistics (INS)

Outcome

Compilation of a first experimental TSA with a base year of 2018 was recommended, and compiled using the ITVS 2018 data and national accounts data for the same year.  It was recommended that five of the ten recommended TSA tables could be compiled at this stage.  An updated inbound visitor survey (ITVS) was suggested for 2022, and a subsequent second TSA compilation should be made towards the end of 2023 using this data.

Other recommendations included the development of a database and interactive front-end dashboard that would significantly improve tourism sector intelligence in Tunisia, based on the extensive range of data held on the tourism sector in Tunisia, but currently only published in paper-based format.