1. 6 Tourism Satellite Account of the Czech Republic Background information The Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) is a tool which serves to measure the share of the tourism sector in GDP. TSA is a globally recognized system allowing international comparison of tourism statistics. It is supported by all major international organisations involved in tourism (EUROSTAT, OECD, UNWTO). On national level, it becomes an indispensable analytical and information background material for decision-making of government bodies and the expert public. The TSA as a cross-cutting inter-sectoral account derives from an adjusted set of “traditional” national accounts. It consists of ten mutually interlinked tables – see Table 1.6.1. Compilation of the TSA is guaranteed by the Czech Statistical Office (CSO), in co-operation with the Czech Ministry of Regional Development and the Czech National Bank. The key sources of data are the Ministry’s border surveys of inbound tourism, CSO’s accommodation statistics and sample surveys of outbound and domestic tourism of residents. TSA methodology The basic TSA structure draws upon the general economic balance between the demand for and supply of the product generated by the tourism industry. On the TSA demand side, the key factor is the tourism participant’s consumption which can be specified as the consumption of domestic tourism, inbound tourism, outbound tourism, internal tourism, and last but not least national tourism. A wider analysis of tourism demand covers also the issues of collective consumption and gross fixed capital formation in tourism. This extensive concept of the demand side is characterised as the “total tourism demand”. Gross fixed capital formation in tourism According to the ESA 95 methodology, gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) together with formation of inventories and acquisitions constitute an item called the gross capital formation. Since the two latter items represent only a very minor part of gross capital formation (around 1/20), only the most significant element is considered for TSA. GFCF in tourism is covered by Table T8. However, there is a slight difference from other supply and use tables as the matrix applied takes only individual categories in the asset nomenclature (AN) into account instead of individual products. Methods to establish gross fixed capital formation in tourism can be similar to production or intermediate consumption, i.e. tourism ratios are assigned to individual tourism industries which are then applied to adjust GFCF. Key monitored indicators Tourism demand – overall domestic and foreign expenditures of a trip participant, i.e. expenditures for: the tour, accommodation, board, and transport beyond the definition of a tour, purchase of goods while travelling and other tourism expenditures directly related to the trip (admission fees, insurance, food purchased prior to travel, developing photographs after return, etc.). No purchases beyond the framework of tourism are included (e.g. purchase of goods for resale, capital investments, donations to institutions, etc.). Tourism supply – a set of products (or industries) characteristic of tourism, related either to tourism or non-specific (other) sectors – see Chart 1.6.1. Characteristic tourism activities – production activities whose core production is characteristic of tourism, which in the absence of visitors would cease to exist in significant extent in most countries, or whose consumption would be rapidly reduced. It is indispensable for international comparison that the methodology be uniform, drawing on a binding nomenclature. It is only classification of related or non-specific products and industries that may be determined on a country-individual basis – see below. Activities related to tourism – activities which in case of absence of visitors (non-existent tourism) would record a drop in production; these may vary among different countries. Non-specific activities – remaining categories for the production of which tourism plays no major role. Collective consumption – non-commercial services related to tourism, e.g. market promotion, planning, tourism development, supervision over services, etc. These are developed by government institutions on national, regional, as well as local levels.