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Wednesday 21 st June 2017
10.30am – 1.15pm
Failte Ireland, 88 - 95 Amiens Street, Dublin 1.
Chairman: Paul J Crowley, CSO
10.30 - 10.40: Introduction, Welcome, Agenda & Minutes of 2016 Meeting
10.40 - 11.00: Improving Tourism Data for Sustained Growth –ITIC (Eoghan O’Mara Walsh)
11.00 - 11.15: Update from NISRA
11.15 - 11.30: Coffee Break
11.30 - 11.45: Update from CSO
11.45 - 12.05: Tourism statistics and mobile phone data - Failte Ireland (Bernie Morris)
12.05 - 12.25: Results of Global Travel Insights 2017 Survey –Tourism Ireland (Olivia Mulhern)
12.25 - 12.45: The Europcar Tourism Index - Europcar Ireland (Ronan Menton)
12.45 - 1.00: Tourism 2025: A Strategy for Tourism Growth in Northern Ireland – Department of the Economy -Northern Ireland (Nuala Crossin)
1.00 - 1.15: Any other business / EU/UN World Tourism Organisation Training on TSAs (Tourism Satellite Accounts)
Chairperson: Paul J Crowley (CSO)
Attendees : Jim McColgan ( NISRA), Sarah McAuley (NISRA), Ian Stanley (NISRA), Paul J Crowley (CSO), Mairead Griffin (CSO), Patsy King (CSO), Bernie Morris (Failte Ireland), Olivia Mulhern (Tourism Ireland), Colm O Connor (DTTAS), Maria Melia (DTTAS), Anne-Marie Montgomery (Tourism Northern Ireland), Pamela Wilson (Tourism Northern Ireland),Nuala Crossin (Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland), David McCullough (Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland), Ronan Menton (Europcar).
Apologies: Eoghan O’Mara Walsh (ITIC).
1. Welcome and introduction
The chairperson welcomed members of the Liaison Group to the meeting. Apologies were received from Eoghan O’Mara Walsh who was unable to attend at the last minute. As a result the first item on the agenda - Improving Tourism Data for Sustained Growth – ITIC was withdrawn from the agenda.
2. Update from NISRA (Jim McColgan)
Jim McColgan told the group that Tourist Statistics Branch (TSB) published their annual 2016 results on 25th May. The publication of Local Government District Tourism Statistics has been brought forward and will now to be published on 6th July 2017.
During 2016/2017 a number (not all) of the key tourism statistics publications underwent rigorous assessment by the Office for National Statistics- they were granted National Statistics accreditation in May 2017.
Jim outlined some of the upcoming events.
Tourism Ireland raised the issue of outliers and how they are dealt with for the Overseas visitors to NI. As part of their review of tourism statistics NISRA are investigating alternative outlier methodologies with a view to using a more systematic approach. Tourism Ireland would welcome this being rolled out to the overseas traffic
3. Update from CSO (Patsy King and Mairead Griffin)
Patsy King gave an update on CSO Tourism releases- Tourism and Travel release for Q1 2017 was published on 14th June, Overseas Travel Release for the period March- May 2017 is to be published on 28th June , and the Household Travel Survey (HTS) Qtr 1 release will be published on 22nd June. She also said that since the previous Tourism Statistics Liaison Group meeting, the CSO had published revised HTS data going back to Q1 2012 (using a new grossing methodology).
The CSO will start collecting data on domestic day trips- extra questions will be put on the HTS form from January 2018 onwards. Patsy said that they may also collect data on outbound day trips – both NISRA and TNI would be very interested in this data for Northern Ireland. Patsy will inform both agencies once a final decision has been made on this
Mairead Griffin updated the group on progress on CAPI. The development of the EDC prototype is almost complete. There are negotiations with staff about changing rosters, work practices etc. This work is ongoing and must be completed before recruitment of new staff. New schedules and rosters are currently being worked on. A new app will be developed in house for issuing samples/rosters to interviewers etc. The sample selection of flights has been automated. Mairead said that she plans to conduct parallel runs for 5 quarters before migration to EDC. Tourism Ireland welcome the news that approval had been received for five quarters parallel runs with no impact on timing of the release using the old paper method. Another problem is that there has been a 47% rise in the number of passengers through Dublin airport between 2012 and 2016- all resource allocation was based on 2012 numbers. Mairead noted her plan to circulate the questionnaire in advance of the go live date and that she would consider users views. The most optimistic projection is that parallel runs will start in Q1 2018.
4. Tourism statistics and mobile phone data (Bernie Morris: Failte Ireland)
Bernie Morris told the group that Failte Ireland currently has a contract with Vodafone to supply 12 monthly reports using data from their network to provide information on tourism in Ireland. Data is currently available for March and April 2017. Bernie provided some graphs on visits to the Wild Atlantic Way (both where they were during the day and later that evening). These graphs were demonstrated for a number of countries. The group complemented Bernie on the very interesting presentation and the value of visualization.
5. Results of Global Travel Insights 2017 Survey (Tourism Ireland: Olivia Mulhern)
Olivia Mulhern described the main results of the ‘Global Tourism Insights’ study. This is an online survey on outbound travel (for 4 or more nights) with 4,000 interviews. She described the ‘funnel’ or path-to-purchase model. This categorized respondents into:
Some of the graphs showed progress for both Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland over time (2011 to 2017) for some of the main markets. Also, a graph showed the main reasons why holidaymakers are planning to visit Ireland. Another table compared strengths and weaknesses of Ireland v Scotland as tourism destinations/experiences (one of our main competitors). The Net Promoter Score is shown for several countries including Ireland and Northern Ireland
6. The Europcar Tourism Index (Ronan Menton: Europcar)
Ronan Menton from Europcar gave a presentation on a project they are working on called The Europcar Tourism Index and outlined some of the main results of this project. The group complemented Ronan on the very interesting presentation.
7. Tourism 2025: A Strategy for Tourism Growth in Northern Ireland (Nuala Crossin: Department of the Economy, Northern Ireland)
Nuala Crossin gave a presentation on the draft Programme for Government: Tourism 2025: A Strategy for Tourism Growth in Northern Ireland. As the strategy has not yet been signed off upon the contents were to be kept confidential by the Group for the present.
8. Any other business
Colm O Connor from DTTAS told the group that there will be a two day training course (organized by the EU commission in cooperation with the UNWTO) on in Brussels on 29th and 30th November 2017 for Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSAs).The course is primarily aimed at statistical agencies but other agencies may also be interested in attending. Paul J Crowley said that the CSO expects to be able to begin work on TSAs, either on its own or in partnership with other agencies, in 2019 and that one of the reasons for collecting data on same day visits is for TSA purposes.
9. Date of next meeting
Paul J Crowley thanked everyone for attending the Liaison Group, especially those who made presentations. He also thanked Failte Ireland for hosting the meeting. He highlighted the benefits of the Group in that it allowed all players to be aware of data and research being undertaken in the Tourism sector.
The next meeting will be held in Dublin in June 2018 and will be organized by NISRA