On the Improvement of Statistical Accounting for Tourist Trips Amidst Crisis

Abstract

The article substantiates the relevance of the issues in question, which have been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic and provides a brief overview of the scientific and practical sources, as well as a description of current research related to both traditional methods of statistical accounting of tourist travel and methods based on the use of big data sources.The review shows current methodology as well as different suggestions, encountered in various research studies, on how to assess inbound, outbound and domestic travel. The evolution of Rosstat’s approaches to accounting for the number of inbound and outbound trips has been analyzed, and certain adjustments to existing methods relating to the accounting of organized and unorganized trips have been proposed.The results of calculations illustrating the predominance of unorganized tourism when making inbound and outbound trips are presented. In general, it is concluded that the most difficult is the comprehensive monitoring of internal travel. Three possible approaches to the accounting of trips are shown. The option of using the approach to accounting for domestic tourist travel based on monitoring of passenger traffic, which is consistent with international recommendations and the existing classification group «Tourism» in our country, is proposed. In addition, the option of accounting for domestic regional tourist trips based on official forms of reporting is shown.It is the author’s opinion that the implementation of the reasoned proposals should serve to improve the reliability and objectivity of statistics on tourist travel. This, in turn, will create the conditions for improving measures to support the tourism sector of the economy, particularly necessary in the economic crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.