Tourism Satellite Accounts: A Critical Assessment

Experts faced with the problems of measuring the size of tourism and its contribution to GDP have proposed tourism satellite accounts (TSAs), which focus on a regular stream of financial data that can be compared through time and with other economic activities at a regional, national, and international level. The article makes it clear that in measuring the TSA-based contribution made by the tourism industry to national or regional GDP, results must be adjusted for indirect effects and intermediate consumption (such as business trips of residents). Using the case of Austria and two of its Länder (states), the article demonstrates the sheer scope by which the tourism industry’s contribution to the national and regional GDP is underestimated. Even when business trips by residents are included and thus make for a greater contribution of tourism to GDP, this fails to compensate for the downward bias produced by ignoring the indirect effects of tourism demand.