The economic importance of vacation homes from the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) perspective

PurposeThis paper aims to show how the effect of vacation home tourism can be quantified within the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA). TSA is a statistical standard recommended by international organizations such as UNWTO, Eurostat and OECD, that measures the economic importance of tourism in the same way as the system of national accounts.Design/methodology/approachThe research focuses on the analysis of a conceptual framework for the statistics of vacation home tourism as it is reflected in the international statistical standards 2008 International Recommendations on Tourism Statistics (IRTS) and Tourism Satellite Account: Recommended Methodological Framework (TSA: RMF). In addition, the analysis is exemplified by some TSA country results referring to vacation homes/second homes. In these illustrative examples calculations are made in a simple manner to show that vacation homes are a component of the main TSA aggregates – internal tourism consumption and tourism value added.FindingsComputing the share of vacation homes reveals that the figures obtained vary from country to country, providing an index for the “level of economic importance of vacation homes”. However, the level of economic importance of vacation homes depends heavily on the measurements each country decides to include in their TSA in relation to vacation homes and consequently the international comparability of data could be affected.Research limitations/implicationsIt was possible to calculate the contribution made by vacation homes to TSA aggregates only in those countries where the figures relating to this aspect of the economy were published/disseminated.Originality/valueComputing the contribution of vacation homes to the main TSA aggregates produced quantitative results, showing that vacation homes do make a contribution to the tourism economy.