Concepts

The Provincial and Territorial Tourism Satellite Account (PTTSA) is based on the concepts and methodologies of the System National Accounts (SNA). This internationally recognized system is an integrated framework of statistics that allows for the measurement of a country’s economic production. It outlines the structure of the economy and the contribution of each industry.

Satellite accounts, such as the PTTSA, have the structure and principles of the national accounts but are developed as an extension to the national accounts system - thus the name “satellite”. The subject matter of the satellite account usually cannot be explicitly found in the core accounts and thus a special calculation is required. Satellite accounts tend to focus on specific aspects, be it social or economic, such as tourism, natural resources, transportation, or environment. Their presentation and adherence to national accounting principles allows an analyst to compare the satellite account (or area of interest) with the entire economy as measured by the SNA. With the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA), one can therefore answer the question of how important is tourism in Canada, by comparing all tourism activities into one coherent account.

For the PTTSA, the supply and use tables from the input-output (IO) accounts in the Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (CSMA) are particularly important. These tables measure and analyze productive activity in the economy focusing on the producers and purchasers of commodities within the various industries. They show the total output and use of commodities by industries, as well as the primary costs (or inputs) associated with production of the commodities. However, tourism is not an industry identified within the CSMA, as it is dependent on the consumer’s purchases as a tourist, rather than on the production of certain goods and services. Constructing the PTTSA, therefore, requires splitting industries into their tourism and non-tourism components. By aggregating the value added for each tourism component, tourism GDP may be calculated.