In the frame of agenda of Statistic capacity building programme, from 5 to 9 March 2012, UNWTO joined with United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and National Statistical Office of Thailand organized the workshop III and regional seminar in Bangkok, Thailand.
The event attracted 52 representatives from 19 Asian and the Pacific countries including Vietnam National Administration (VNAT), for the first time. Mr. Stan Fleewood - UNWTO counsultant, Mr. Tim Quinn – Manager of Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism (Australia), Mr. Peter Francis – Manager of Tourism Research and Evalution (New Zealand) presided the program.
During Workshop III (5 - 6 March), all countries presented about what have been done since Workshop II (2011) in the field of domestic tourism, inbound, outbound statistics. Australia’s and New Zealand’s representatives shared recent improvements in demand side surveys and issues in tourism data collection of these countries. Then, a technical tour was held on March 7.
In Regional Seminar (8 - 9 March), some countries had presentations on domestic, inbound, outbound statistics and exchanged experience in implementing Tourism Satellite Account (TSA). Main issues mentioned included determine usual environment in domestic statistics, the survey methodology, survey locations, data sources... The participants also agreed that the implementation of TSA is a long-term plan related to many units such as Ministry of Tourism, the General Statistics Office, Ministry of Finance, the Immigration Department...
Through the event, the participating countries exchanged experiences on tourism statistics and got more understaning of the difficulties and advantages when implementing tourism statistics in general and TSA in particular.
Hong Thanh (TITC)