The measurement of tourism, whether it be economic, or to assess environmental and social impacts, is arguably the most fundamental aspect of tourism development.  Acorn Tourism specialises in these activities and has been at the forefront of the development of tourism statistics and methods of measuring tourism for the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and other agencies since 1996.

Establishing Systems of Tourism Statistics

This is the starting point!  Every destination will have a system, but the effectiveness and level of detail will vary.  We make assessments of existing systems, and put together realistic plans for their development and expansion so that they provide deeper and broader data that can be used for planning, monitoring, marketing, promoting and regulating the sector.

We have implemented inbound air, cruise and land-based visitor surveys, domestic visitor surveys, and industry surveys (such as accommodation occupancy, income, expenditure and employment) in over 50 countries.  Also, we do more than just assist with the establishment of systems of tourism statistics, we also help set up entire research units within organisations.  A robust system of tourism statistics is usually the first step towards the development of a Tourism Satellite Account.

Tourism Satellite Accounts

The internationally recognised methodology for measuring the economic impact of tourism is through the establishment of a Tourism Satellite Account (TSA).  Internationally ratified by the United Nations Statistical Committee (UNSC) and United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), TSAs measure tourism using the same concepts as other industries such as agriculture, manufacturing and mining.  We worked with the UNWTO during the establishment of the framework for TSAs in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and have since been instrumental in the development and implementation of TSAs in destinations on every continent of the world.

Our approach is straightforward, we assess the availability of data required for the compilation of a TSA, and usually attempt a first “experimental” TSA based on this data.  What this does is clearly identify data shortcomings, and therefore any new surveys and data collection that is required to compile a more robust TSA.  We have found that this is what clients want – results straight away!

Natural Capital Accounting

Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) is linked to the System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA) which studies the relationships between the economy and the stocks, and changes in stocks, of environmental assets such as wildlife or national parks.  It is closely linked with TSA development, although is still a relatively new approach to measuring the environment and its value to tourism.  We have developed a number of methodologies for this, in particular with the World Bank in Africa.

Local Economic Impact

Whilst TSAs work well at the national level, for regional and more local measurement of the economic impact of tourism a different approach is usually more effective.  Typically for these we deploy visitor expenditure surveys and measure the impact of the visitor economy combining the findings from these with surveys of local businesses.  We can set up surveys and develop impact models quickly and effectively anywhere in the world.

Forecasting and Modelling

Way back in 1995, Acorn Tourism worked on the UNWTO Tourism 2020 Vision forecasts.  These projected arrivals and expenditure to 2020 in every country in the world.  In 2019 our projections were only 1.8% short of the number of international tourist arrivals reported worldwide.  Over the years we have developed ATOM, our forecasting model, to enable detailed and accurate forecasting for individual countries that can take into consideration a wide range of scenarios such as economic changes in source markets, new transport links, and changes in the destination tourism product.

T-Stats

Measuring tourism in a destination is not just about a single point in time, but over time, so that changes can be monitored and the impacts of external events such as the global economy, transport and infrastructure changes, and actions taken to develop tourism such as marketing campaigns can be assessed.  To help destinations do this we developed the only purpose-built tourism statistics database available worldwide – T-Stats.