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SA needs better tourism stats

Source: SA tourism update, 24/07/2015

A lack of credible and timely statistical data complicates any tourism
trend analysis.
South Africa`s lack of real-time consumer data and credible
statistical datacomplicates any tourism trend analysis, according to a
report published by the SA Tourism Review Committee.
Chairperson Valli Moosa explained that the delay in tourist arrivals
data from Home Affairs and Stats SA in 2014 made reliable measurement
of the performance of the tourism economy in South Africa impossible.
Stats further than March 2015 have yet to be published, more than
three months on. Moosa said Stats SA needs to be quicker to turn
around statistics.
Besides the delays in publishing the stats, the accuracy there of has
also been questioned. "While the data has now finally been released,
there are still concerns regarding its accuracy," said Moosa,
explaining that public and private sector stakeholders have generally
expressed discontent with the tourism research and statistics that
exists in the country at large as well as at SA Tourism.
SA Tourism and NDT have also expressed concerns regarding the veracity
of recent data. SA Tourism has indicated there are gaps in the data
and possibly other serious problems such as the removal of transit
tourists from the current data. This is contrary to the global
definition of a tourist and previous data, which renders comparison
difficult. SA Tourism is in the process of getting data from the
International Air Transport Association to double-check identified
trends against a more reliable source.
The review committee has called for more industry involvement in
identifying trends and research needs as well as in interpreting
findings. Given the concerns over StatsSA data, SA Tourism will need
to investigate others sources of data on tourist arrivals and industry
performance to supplement and `triangulate` StatsSA data.

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