MODUL University Vienna hosted the UNWTO Regional Seminar on Capacity Building in Tourism Statistics.

The Capacity Building Programme in Tourism Statistics has been initiated by the World Tourism Organisation’s (UNWTO) [1] Department of Statistics and Economic Measurement of Tourism to promote the integration of tourism statistics within the sphere of United Nation’s members. The aim of the programme is to foster the worldwide comparability of tourism statistics and the macroeconomic analysis of tourism activities. The further goal is to uphold the relevance of internationally agreed standards and, in particular, those of the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) framework for the measurement of tourism related activities.

Austria has been selected as a partner of the organization of the programme in Europe. The content of the seminars and their organization is the result of collaboration between the Austrian Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth (BMWFJ) [2] and Statistik Austria [3]. MODUL University Vienna, an affiliate member of the UNWTO, has been chosen as the location for the main event.

The importance of the measurement of tourism activities has been highlighted as the central topic of the seminar from its very beginning. In the welcoming session, Ms Angelika Liedler-Janoschik (Head of Division for International Tourism Affairs of the BMWFJ) recalled how fundamental data comparability at the international level is for a meaningful assessment of the impact of tourism. Ms Petra Stolba, CEO of the Austrian National Tourist Office [4], stressed the necessity of a thorough analysis of the market to build up efficient destination marketing strategies. As publisher of the Statistics Yearbook of Tourism, one of the main references for statistics in the industry, UNWTO reminded delegates how such publications need a sufficient number of robust data to provide the industry with meaningful information. The contribution of the TourMIS [5], the Marketing Information System for Tourism Managers, to the process of homologation and diffusion of tourism statistics has been acknowledged by the speakers, who congratulated Prof. Wöber for the success of TourMIS, recently awarded with the UNWTO Ulysses Committee Prize [6] for Innovation in Tourism Enterprises.

During the two days, representatives of governments, statistic offices and national banks of twelve European countries (Albania, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, Rumania, Russian Federation, Slovakia and Turkey) presented the improvements achieved in the frame of the UNWTO Capacity Building Programme. The positive feedback of the delegates confirms the optimal content of the programme, to the benefit of its participants.

More information about the event is available at the web site of the Federal Ministry for Economy, Family and Youth [7] and of Statistik Austria [8] and www.tourmis.info [5]

Contact
Valeria Croce (MA), MODUL University Vienna
Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management
Am Kahlenberg 1, 1190 Wien, Austria
valeria.croce@modul.ac.at [9] | www.modul.ac.at/croce [10]