Within the framework of the joint project “Strengthening institutional, statistical and information-technical capacity of the State Statistics Committee of Turkmenistan (TurkmenStat)”, implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with the TurkmenStat a series of training sessions on the Tourism Expenditures Survey (TES) was held in Ashgabat and the Awaza National Tourist Zone from 17 August to 5 September 2023.
The trainings were attended by representatives of the national tourism sector, including hotel managers, travel agents and tour operators, as well as survey supervisors and interviewers. Participants learnt how to organize a tourism sample survey, which aims to structure tourism expenditures related to domestic, inbound, and outbound travel, and facilitate the calculation of the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA). TSA consolidates data on the supply and use of tourism-related goods and services into a single format in accordance with the SNA 2008 standards. It summarizes the contribution tourism sector makes to production and employment in the country, being consistent with and integrated to official national accounts and it helps estimate the impact of tourism on the national economy.
The organizers of the training introduced participants to various types of tourism expenditure surveys aligned with the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) standards, including surveys at border checkpoints, interviewing guests in places of collective residence, surveys of visitors to tourist sites. The participants discussed the methodology of data collection, the structure of surveys, data processing, expected challenges and ways to address them.
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A joint project between the UNDP and the State Statistics Committee (TurkmenStat) of Turkmenistan “Strengthening institutional, statistical and information-technical capacity of the State Statistics Committee of Turkmenistan” was launched at the beginning of 2021 and aims at strengthening the capacity of TurkmenStat to improve the quality of statistical data, continuing work on the conceptual transition to the 2008 SNA and expanding the scope, degree, detail and quality of national accounts and complementary economic statistics; and to measure the progress of the SDGs. ///UNDP Turkmenistan, 7 September 2023
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