News Release

EMBARGOED UNTIL RELEASE AT 8:30 A.M. EDT, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2010
BEA 10-46

Travel and Tourism Satellite Accounts, 2nd quarter 2010

QUARTERLY TOURISM ESTIMATES WILL NOT BE DISCONTINUED
(SEE THE BOX NEXT RELEASE)

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Real spending on travel and tourism increased at an annual rate of 3.0 percent in 2010:2, following an increase of 5.0 percent (revised) in 2010:1. By comparison, real gross domestic product (GDP) increased 1.6 percent (second estimate) in 2010:2 after increasing 3.7 percent in 2010:1. Travel and tourism prices increased 2.7 percent in 2010:2 after increasing 4.1 percent (revised) in 2010:1.

  • Passenger air transportation spending increased 3.9 percent in 2010:2 and 4.0 percent in 2010:1.
  • Accommodations spending decelerated, increasing 6.1 percent in 2010:2 after increasing 13.4 percent in 2010:1.
  • Prices for accommodations turned up in 2010:2, increasing 19.0 percent, after decreasing 6.4 percent in 2010:1.

 

 

 

 

Chart 1. Real Tourism Spending

 

 

After eight consecutive quarters of declines, direct tourism-related employment turned up, increasing 2.2 percent in 2010:2. By comparison, overall U.S. employment increased 2.2 percent in 2010:2 and increased 0.2 percent in 2010:1.

Real Tourism Spending. Real spending on passenger air transportation increased 3.9 percent in 2010:2 as demand improved. Real spending on traveler accommodations slowed, increasing 6.1 percent after increasing more than 13 percent in 2010:1.
Chart 2. Quarterly Growth in Real Tourism Spending
 
Tourism Prices. Prices for passenger air transportation continued their strong growth, rising 16.0 percent in 2010:2. Prices for traveler accommodations showed a sharp upturn, increasing 19.0 percent in 2010:2 after decreasing 6.4 percent in 2010:1. Higher occupancy rates created pricing opportunities for hotels.
Chart 3. Quarterly Growth in Tourism Prices
 
Tourism Employment. Overall growth in travel and tourism employment was 2.2 percent in 2010:2  the first increase since 2008:1. In 2010:2, employment increased 0.5 percent in air transportation services and 4.7 percent in traveler accommodations.
Chart 4. Quarterly Growth in Tourism Employment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total Tourism-Related Spending. The U.S. production generated by tourism spending not only includes the goods and services that are purchased directly, but also the inputs used to produce these goods and services indirect tourism-related spending. In 2010:2, total current-dollar tourism-related spending was $1.3 trillion and consisted of $750.9 billion (57 percent) of direct tourism spending goods and services sold directly to visitors and $575.3 billion (43 percent) of indirect tourism-related spending goods and services used to produce what visitors buy.

Total Tourism-Related Employment. In 2010:2, total tourism-related employment was 8.1 million and consisted of 5.6 million (69 percent) direct tourism jobs jobs where workers produce goods and services sold directly to visitors and 2.5 million (31 percent) indirect tourism-related jobs jobs where workers produce goods and services used to produce what visitors buy.

 

Definitions

Tourism spending.  Tourism spending comprises all goods and services purchased by tourists (defined as people who travel for any reason). In the following tables, tourism spending is referred to as direct tourism output.

Indirect tourism-related spending.   Indirect tourism-related spending comprises all output used as inputs in the process of producing direct tourism output (e.g., toiletries for hotel guests and the plastic used to produce souvenir key chains).

Total tourism-related spending.  Total tourism-related spending is the sum of direct tourism spending and indirect tourism-related spending.

Direct tourism employment.  Direct tourism employment comprises all jobs where the workers are engaged in the production of direct tourism output (such as hotel staff, airline pilots, and souvenir sellers).

Indirect tourism-related employment.  Indirect tourism-related employment comprises all jobs where the workers are engaged in the production of indirect tourism-related output (e.g., employees of companies that produce toiletries for hotel guests and the plastic used to produce souvenir key chains).

Total tourism-related employment.  Total tourism-related employment is the sum of direct tourism employment and indirect tourism-related employment.

 

These statistics are from BEAs Travel and Tourism Satellite Accounts (TTSAs), which are supported by funding from the Office of Travel and Tourism Industries, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. The current-price statistics of direct tourism output were derived from BEAs annual TTSAs (revised in June 2009) and from current-price quarterly statistics of personal consumption expenditures from the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs). The real statistics of direct tourism output were developed using price indexes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and real quarterly statistics of personal consumption expenditures from the NIPAs. The statistics of direct tourism employment were derived from the annual TTSAs (revised in June 2009) from BEA, the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), and Current Employment Statistics (CES) from BLS.

Quarterly statistics are seasonally adjusted and expressed at annual rates, unless otherwise specified. Percent changes are calculated from unrounded data and annualized. Real values are in chained (2000) dollars. Price indexes are chain-type measures. Growth in overall U.S. employment is calculated using BLS total nonfarm employment from Current Employment Statistics, www.bls.gov/ces/home.htm#data.

These Travel and Tourism statistics do not reflect the results of the comprehensive revision of the annual industry accounts, released on May 25, 2010. They will be updated to incorporate this revision in fall 2010.

 

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Next release – Travel and Tourism statistics for third quarter 2010 will be released on Monday, December 20, 2010 at 8:30 a.m. EST. 

BEAs national, international, regional, and industry statistics; the Survey of Current Business; and BEA news releases are available without charge on BEAs Web site at www.bea.gov. By visiting the site, you can also subscribe to receive free e-mail summaries of BEA releases and announcements.