Definitions

Tourism is defined in the PTTSA as the set of productive activities that cater mainly to visitors. A visitor is a traveller taking a trip to a main destination outside his/her usual environment, for less than a year, and for any main purpose (business, leisure or other personal purpose) other than to be employed by a resident entity in the country or place visited. The concept of tourism is broad, covering more than just “leisure travel”; it includes travel for business, leisure and other personal reasons, such as visiting friends and relatives, religious purposes and medical treatment.

The concept of usual environment relates to the place where the individual lives and works or studies and includes any other places frequented. This notion is not precisely defined in the international standard, thereby allowing a country to apply the tourism concept to its own specifications. For operational purposes, Canada has defined the concept of “outside the usual environment” as same-day trips that are out-of-town and forty kilometers or more one way from home and all overnight trips that are out-of-town. Crossing an international border, however, is considered tourism no matter the distance travelled. Routine trips (i.e., those that are made at least once a month) are excluded from tourism, in order to better reflect the notion of usual environment.

In the TSA, people who are engaged in tourism are called visitors. Those who stay one or more nights away from home are called tourists, while those who spend no nights away from home are called same-day visitors. In the PTTSA, the term tourist is used to denote all visitors, whether they are same-day or overnight visitors.

Tourism demand is defined as total spending by tourists on domestically produced commodities. This includes all spending by same-day and overnight visitors, Canadian and non-resident. Total tourism demand can be split into three components: domestic demand, interprovincial demand and international demand. Domestic demand includes the expenditures associated with tourism activity within a province or territory by residents of that province or territory. Interprovincial demand, also called interprovincial exports, includes tourism expenditures in a province or territory by residents of another province or territory. International demand, also called international exports, consists of the expenditures by non-residents in Canada on tourism. Business, government and personal tourism expenditures are included for all types of demand. The PTTSA also calculates interprovincial tourism imports which are expenditures associated with tourism activity by residents of a province or territory in another province or territory, as well as international tourism imports which are expenditures associated with tourism activity by Canadians outside Canada.

A tourism product is a good or service for which a significant part of its total demand comes from visitors. Thus, air passenger transportation would be a tourism product, while groceries, although occasionally bought by tourists, are considered a non-tourism product. As another example, meals from restaurants are deemed to be tourism products because a significant part of the demand comes from tourists, even though restaurants primarily serve local residents. In Canada, tourism products also include goods bought solely for the purpose of travel (e.g., motor homes, tent trailers and luggage). These so-called “pre-trip” expenses are included because the vast majority of spending on these items is in anticipation of taking tourism trips. These items may of course be used for non-tourism purposes as well, but these other uses are considered to be minimal.

Tourism consists of a mix of industries and parts of industries and the various products they produce. An industry is a grouping of establishments that provide similar products to businesses and persons. A tourism industry is defined as one that would continue to exist only at a significantly reduced level of activity as a direct result of an absence of tourism. Some industries are included as tourism even though the majority of their output can be attributed to non-tourism. The food and beverage services and recreation and entertainment industries are examples. Such industries are included because without tourism, their level of activity would be significantly reduced.

Another important definition in the construction of the PTTSA is that of tourism supply. This is the total production of the tourism commodities bought by tourists and non-tourists in Canada. Canadians also buy goods and services outside of Canada, but these are not included in tourism supply. In contrast to the supply and use tables where the supply of a product always equals its demand, the supply of a tourism product usually exceeds tourism demand as defined in the PTTSA. This is because tourism supply includes the total production of a tourism products whether it is purchased by a tourist or not. For example, 100 units of a tourism product (i.e., accommodation services) is produced within a given economy (i.e., total tourism supply of accommodation services = 100). This tourism supply of accommodation services is available to be purchased both by tourists and non-tourists. If tourists purchase 90 units, tourism demand would equal 90 units and the product ratio (ratio of tourism demand to supply) for accommodation services would become 90% (90/100). The remaining 10% would be purchased by non-tourists.

The tourism product ratio is useful in identifying the proportion of a tourism product that is actually purchased by tourists. In the example above, 90% of accommodation services are purchased by tourists. This ratio is also helpful in the data validation process especially in the reconciliation of demand and supply estimates, and in estimating the share of an industry’s employment that is generated by tourism.

Tourism GDP is defined as the unduplicated value of production, within the boundaries of a region (i.e., a province or territory), of goods and services purchased by tourists. In the PTTSA, tourism GDP is valued at basic prices, the same method of valuation as in the supply and use tables of the Canadian SNA. Only direct GDP, as opposed to indirect GDP, is measured. Indirect GDP refers to the upstream effects of economic activity (e.g., the manufacture of linens used in hotels). Although these indirect effects are important, they are beyond the scope of the PTTSA which focuses on the GDP generated by the production of goods or services consumed directly by tourists. Indirect effects can however be calculated in economic impact models based on the PTTSA. Tourism GDP is estimated using the sum of incomes (i.e., the returns to labour and capital from production) attributable to tourism. The components include wages and salaries, supplementary labour income, mixed income and other operating surplus (including profit and depreciation).

Tourism employment is a measure of the number of jobs in tourism and non-tourism industries held by the self-employed, employees and unpaid family workers. Tourism employment includes only jobs directly attributable to tourism. These are jobs generated from tourism consumption (demand), net of non-tourism demand arising from local consumption. Thus, in the food and beverage services industry, only those jobs that are directly associated with tourism are counted in the PTTSA as jobs generated by, or attributable to, tourism. On the other hand, jobs generated by the agriculture industry to support production in the food and beverage services industry (i.e., indirect employment) are not included.

Tourism employment, or jobs generated by tourism, differs from jobs in tourism industries as defined in the Human Resource Module (HRM) of the Tourism Satellite Account. The HRM includes employment in tourism industries, regardless of whether the jobs cater to tourists or non-tourists.