asked the Taoiseach the basis on which statistics for tourism in Ireland are calculated.
Written Answers. - Statistics For Tourism.
54.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) prepare estimates on a regular basis of the number of visits made and the expenditure by visitors to Ireland and by Irish visitors abroad. The results are issued in the annual CSO release "Tourism and Travel". The basis of the estimates is as follows:
Two sample surveys of passengers, the Country of Residence Survey and the Passenger Card Inquiry are carried out by the CSO. These are used in conjunction with total passenger movement figures supplied by the transport companies, to provide the estimates for overseas tourism and travel.
The Country of Residence Survey is a year round sample survey of passengers, both inward and outward at all major air and sea ports to provide an estimated distribution of passengers by country of residence. This distribution is applied to the total passenger movement figures to provide overall estimates of the numbers of visits abroad by Irish residents and of visits to Ireland by non-residents. This latter estimate is further broken down into the area of residence distinguished in the results. The sample size in the 1988 Country of Residence survey was 136,000 passengers — 69,000 inward and 67,000 outward.
The Passenger Card Inquiry is also a year round sample survey of incoming and departing passengers at major air and sea ports. Information is collected on the reason for journey, area of residence, length of stay, expenditure and fare costs. The results are combined with the overall visitor estimates from the Country of Residence Survey to provide the overseas tourism and travel estimates.
In the Passenger Card Inquiry respondents are asked to indicate by means of ticking an appropriate box on the inquiry card which of the descriptions business, tourist, visit to relatives or other is their reason for journey. The replies to this question are the basis for the reason for journey analyses used in presenting the results. The sample size in the 1988 Passenger Card Inquiry at air and sea ports was 227,000 passengers, 84,000 inward and 143,000 outward.
The estimates for cross-Border visitors on rail and scheduled bus services are derived from the Passenger Card Inquiry on these services and from passenger movement statistics. In this case the Passenger Card Inquiry results are used to estimate the country of residence distribution in addition to the reason for journey distribution and the average length of stay, expenditure and fare costs. The sample size in the Passenger Card Inquiry on rail and scheduled bus services in 1988 was 14,000 passengers, 7,000 inward and 7,000 outward.
The estimates of expenditure by cross-Border visitors using private cars (or unscheduled bus services) are based on very limited information and must be regarded as subject to wide margins of error. It has not been possible to introduce a satisfactory survey of persons crossing the border from which reliable estimates of expenditure and length of stay could be made.
For the overall estimate of earnings from visitors from abroad data on passenger fare receipts from visitors to Ireland is provided by the Irish air and sea carriers.