Study on tourism economic yardstick

An application to the European Commission for money to carry out a "tourism satellite account" feasibility study has been approved.

The study is being carried out by the Malta Tourism Authority together with the Central Bank and the National Statistics Office.

The study is aimed at assessing the importance of having an internationally acceptable and used methodology for tourism economic measurements.

A tourism satellite account provides a view of the basic economic structure of tourism in terms of supply and demand relationships, quantifying the size of tourism relative to other types of economic activity.

The study also covers non-monetary data, such as employment, overseas arrivals and departures, as well as visitor characteristics.

A total €14,503.73 - 30 per cent of the cost of the study - will be provided by the European Commission as part funding, with the MTA, CBM and NSO forking out the rest. The project started in December and ends in August.

MTA chief executive officer Leslie Vella told a news conference yesterday that at this stage, Malta was not carrying out the tourism satellite accounting exercise in itself but a feasibility study on whether it should be undertaken in the years to come.

NSO director general Alfred Camilleri said that during the past years, the statistical database on tourism and other sectors improved significantly, allowing organisations to venture into programmes such as the ones provided for by the EU.

The pre-acceptance regulations and the actual agreement signed between the beneficiaries and the European Commission stress the importance of cooperation among national tourism entities and statistical offices.

Mr Vella said the underlying rationale adopted by the European Commission in providing these funds was that sectors in which smaller firms predominated were often short of information.

The absence of reliable statistical information and reliable and credible tools affected both public policies and efficient business operations, apart from making decisions difficult both on a local and regional level.