Tourism Statistics - Government of Botswana

3.2 Tourism Characteristic Industries
The TSA: RMF sets out clearly the Tourism Characteristic Industries for which it is appropriate to
present information on their production (See Annex 5). Such information is reliant upon two
aspects:
(1) The National Accounts relating to the different production industries; and
(2) The details on tourist‟s expenditure in the appropriate product categories as shown in Annex 5,
which itself is reliant upon the sample surveys undertaken.
With these constraints it has been found necessary to limit the TSA to the main tourism industries,
which were:
Tourism collective accommodation (but not second homes);
Restaurants and similar;
Road Transport;
Air Transport;
Travel Agencies/ Tour Operators (margins); and
Other industries.
Lack of information on Second Homes used for tourism purposes in Botswana means that it is not
possible to compile suitable statistics. Rail travel for tourism purposes is thought to be minimal.
Water Travel is similarly minimal. For the other categories of either expenditure or industries,
identifying these separately has not been possible, so they are put together in the category
„others‟. In principle Goods should be treated separately from services: for goods (shopping) only
the retail trade margin generates tourism value added, not the total value of the good purchased.
3.3 Production Accounts
The production accounts for the above six industries have been estimated by using the information
available from the CSO, for the national accounts for 2005/2006. The CSO National Accounts give
the key breakdowns into Intermediate Consumption and into Gross Value Added. Both Output and
Gross Value Added are in Basic Prices. The difference between Basic Prices, Producer Prices and
Purchasers‟ Prices is illustrated in Annex 6.
The TSA: RMF recommends a specific format for Table 5 of the TSA, which sets out the
production of products by the Tourism Characteristic Industries and then outlines the Inputs which
will make up Intermediate Consumption, and then finally gives a breakdown of Gross Value Added
into its components. (For the relationship between these macroeconomic aggregates, see Annex
7)
A key issue here is that a particular product can be produced by more than one industry, and of
course a tourism industry can produce products other than the product that is its typical output.
Identifying and then measuring these different components is a critical task. Here in Botswana it
has not been possible to identify these boundaries with clarity, and for this reason the gross
figures of output for any industry may cover other products as well.
Additionally, the output of any industry, even a tourism industry, is seldom consumed 100% by
tourists. Except for the accommodation services for visitors, the bulk of the products go to nontourism
use.
In order to keep broad comparability with the National Accounts process, „Cost of Sales‟ has been
included with Intermediate Consumption. The Production Accounts are in Table 5.
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