The institutional affiliation
Tourism Economic Impact Measures and Satellite Account Data Analysis and Application
Tourism has a huge potential as a tool for economic development. The basic components of economic impacts of the tourism industry are visitors, their expenditures and the multiplier effect. Economics of the country, region or city tries to reach an optimum return from the use of its resources. The ability of the tourist destination to retain the income depends on self-sufficiency of the local economy, its ability to produce services attractive for visitors. Money spent by tourists will be also introduced through other sectors of the economy causing a multiplier effect. Thus, the tourism industry identifies three major goals, namely, to maximize the psychological experience of travelers, to increase profits for tourism businesses and to raise benefits of tourism expenditures in the community (Goeldner, 2009).
In the attempt to make the measurements of tourism, economic impacts more accurate The United Nations developed the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA). The system analyzes in detail all aspects associated with the tourism industry. Considering the example of the Super Bowl held annually in Dallas, we can see how the local economy benefits from this four-day event. TSA can help organize statistical data on demographic characteristics of potential visitors of the Super Bowl to broaden the tourism services and create new attractions. The local government can be provided with precise data on economic effects of the event on a local balance of payments and with the information needed to design economic policies related to the further tourism development in the region. However, TSA has limited focus on the analysis of non-monetary and qualitative phenomena, for example, investments or employment strategies. This data could be used to improve the image of Dallas as a leisure and business destination. There are also no data divided by gender. Such information is of great value for the development of marketing concepts. Nevertheless, taking into account the elasticity of the tourism sector, these TSA inaccuracies can be substituted by more general statistical data.
References
Goeldner, Charles, R. (2009). Tourism. Principles, Practices, Philosophies. Retrieved 06 April from http://www.slideshare.net/genkipyon/tourism-principlespracticesphilosophies
