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Minutes of Meeting of the All Ireland Tourism Statistics Liaison Group – Technical Subcommittee
| Venue: | Fáilte Ireland, Amien St, Dublin 1 |
| Date: | 2nd May 2013 |
| Attendees: | |
| NISRA: | James Gillan |
| DETI: | Patricia McDowell |
| Paddy O’Kane | |
| Tourism Ireland: | Olivia Mulhern |
| Failte Ireland: | Bernie Morris |
| CSO: | Paul J Crowley |
| Mairead Griffin |
James commenced the meeting with some background information on Northern Ireland tourism statistics including NI tourism trends and the sources of their data (NIPS and SOT).
Bernie Morris provided the group with a brief overview of the methodology used to compile Fáilte Ireland’s SOT (Survey of Overseas Travellers). She explained that SOT is a disproportionate stratified random sample of overseas travellers with a sample size of approximately 6,000.
The group also discussed the SOT results for 2010-2012.
A brief discussion was held on the calculation of confidence intervals for both the SOT and PCI. Mairead stated that once the proposed changes were implemented for the PCI (see below), she would then look at calculating and publishing confidence intervals for that survey. James questioned whether or not it would be appropriate to calculate confidence intervals for the SOT given that it could be argued that the SOT was a quota sample. Bernie confirmed that the SOT is a stratified sample, but that there were no confidence intervals available. Concerns were expressed over the volatility of the NI element of the SOTs, but it was pointed out that this could be a function of the reduction in the overall sample size (from 10,000 to 6,000) in 2011.
Mairead presented an overview of the PCI (Passenger Card Inquiry) and CRS (Country of Residence Survey), briefly outlining the sample size of both surveys and the sampling and grossing methodologies used. She and Paul then informed the group of some of the proposed methodological changes to the PCI and CRS, the reason for them and the potential impact of these changes: positive impact = more reliable, timely and detailed data; negative impact = a break in the time series. They stated that the proposed timeframe for the implementation of these changes is the period 2014 to 2016.
A discussion was also held on the PCI data on visits to and nights spent in Northern Ireland. Some of the limitations of self completion surveys were pointed out by Mairead. There followed a discussion on when the PCI figures on NI tourism would be available for use. Paul and Mairead stated that the PCI data wouldn’t be available for publication until after the 2013 annual data is processed to enable an analysis of 2012 and 2013 data for reliability, consistency etc. Having reviewed the SOT data, Bernie Morris agreed to get a review of the SOT weighting. James Gillan indicated that the SOT data would be used to generate their 2012 NI via ROI numbers but that they would include a reference to the sample size, along with a sentence to say that an alternative data source is currently under review. He also said that that NI Direct, Vias as well as total visitor numbers were expected to be published by the end of May/Early June, subject to Household Travel Survey data being available.
The meeting concluded with a brief discussion on the main All Ireland Tourism Statistics Liaison Group meeting to be held in Dublin on June 13th. It was agreed that this technical subgroup (i.e. those responsible for the production of tourism statistics) would meet again at a later date and that the meeting on June 13th should focus on the users and current and future tourism policy initiatives. With this in mind, it was agreed that users/policy makers would be asked to make a brief presentation prioritising needs for future tourism statistics and/or detailing any policy initiatives that may impact on tourism data requirements.