Measuring Tourism’s Contribution To Local Economies

Australian researchers – in a world-first apparently – have used economic modelling to estimate both direct and indirect impacts of the tourism industry in our states and territories.

We now have a nationally consistent picture and will be able to evaluate the flow-on effect of tourism on the communities it touches – vital for both government and business decisionmaking.

The modelling has been undertaken by Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre (STCRC), and is aligned with the national Tourism Satellite Account developed each year by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Jenny Lambert CEO of the National Tourism Alliance says:

“In these tough times both Government and communities need to understand what drives jobs and regional growth. Investment decisions need to be made to maximise growth potential, and such decisions are best made on the basis of good data.”

A Snapshot Of Data

• New South Wales reported the highest direct contribution to a state/territories Gross Value Added (GVA), ($112.8 billion) and the highest number of people directly employed in tourism (158, 000)

• In terms of the percentage of population directly employed by tourism, Northern Territory’s figure of 9.45% is almost twice that of New South Wales (4.77%).

• Tourism in the Northern Territory also reported the highest percentage of direct contribution to GVA, with 5.8%, followed by Tasmania at 4.48%.

• In terms of indirect contributions to GVA, New South Wales made the biggest state/territory contribution of $87.5 billion followed by Victoria with $65.2 billion.

• On indirect employment, New South Wales reported the highest employee contribution of
109,650 people, Queensland follows with 97,000.

CEO of STCRC Ian Kean says the reports are not designed to compare state and territory contributions but to highlight the importance and diversity of tourism in Australia. He says:

“It is interesting to note that tourism generates employment in non-traditional industries such as transport and storage, retail trade, education and manufacturing.”

A Related Regional Project

STCRC is also working to further focus the economic modelling to provide a tourism economic valuations on a regional level. The first of these regional Tourism Satellite Accounts will be available by mid 2009.

About The Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre

Established under the Australian Government’s Cooperative Research Centres program in 1997, STCRC has grown to be the largest dedicated tourism research organisation in the world.

Definitions

Gross State Product (GSP) is a measure of the total value of industry output in an economy.

Direct Economic Contribution
The direct economic contribution of tourism is generated where there is a direct physical or economic relationship between the visitor and the producer of the goods and services, for example, hotels and airlines.

Indirect Economic Contribution
The indirect economic contribution of tourism arises from other industries that are not in direct contact with visitors but who produce services and products for the industries which have direct visitor contact.

For example, a visitor purchases a meal from a hotel; the hotel purchases the raw ingredients from a food supplier who in turn makes their purchase from a farm; the farm employs staff and pays for transport of their product and so on. This represents a series of indirect effects that link tourism to other economy sectors.

The full report is available for free download at http://www.crctourism.com.au/BookShop/BookDetail.aspx?d=621

It will be interesting to see the regional tourism economic valuations in 2009.