The statistical information for tourism economics. The National Accounts perspective

Statistical information strengthening in tourism sector is recommended by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). Economic-statistical information is basic for carrying out effective quantitative economic analysis of tourism. Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) is not a suitable source of information for econometric analysis. National Accounts (NA), in the form of Input-Output (I-O) Tables, Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models or Social Accounting Matrices (SAMs) represent a good source of economic-statistical information and of economic impact analysis. This paper shows how it is appropriate to focus on the definition of tourists and tourism enterprises, overcoming the uncertainties and distortions in the analyses and results that the current leaning on a generic definition of tourism entails. Furthermore, it is argued that the best impact analysis can be conducted through the use of a SAM, which in addition to being structurally consistent with the choice of defining and implementing tourists and tourist enterprises, confirming its usefulness, allows to analyse fully and, from a theoretical point of view, more correctly than I-O Tables and CGE models, the impact of inbound tourism expenditure on production structure represented by branches, on factors and therefore on GVA/GDP produced by the branches themselves and on households expenditure. Furthermore, the suggested approach offers actual possibilities for assessing the economic sustainability of tourism development. Regional and national impact analyses carried out with the use of SAMs confirm the positions claimed in the paper.