The economic importance of vacation homes from the tourism satellite account (tsa) perspective

The economic importance of vacation

homes from the Tourism Satellite Account

(TSA) perspective

Cristi Frent¸

Abstract

Purpose – This 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/approach – The 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.

Findings – Computing 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/implications – It 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/value – Computing 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.

Keywords Buildings, Leave, Tourism, Value added

Paper type Technical paper

1. Introduction

For some people using a second home as a type of accommodation could be an appropriate

choice. If the second home is used for recreational and tourism purposes then it becomes a

vacation home. Therefore, all trips to vacation homes can be counted as tourism.

However, by their nature, the tourism activities relating to the use of second homes (vacation

homes) are different from mainstream tourism. In most cases, the tourists themselves own

the vacation homes, thus incurring no accommodation expenditure. Instead, there are

‘‘maintenance costs’’ paid by owners and, not least, the acquisition cost of holiday houses in

the beginning. All these costs/expenditures are very important when analyzing the impact of

tourism from an economic point of view. Even if holiday homes are provided free of charge to

other persons, there are all sorts of ‘‘hidden costs’’ which can be described as ‘‘imputed

costs’’, usually expressed (estimated) in the form of an ‘‘imputed rent’’ in accordance with

the national accounting principles. For these reasons, the valuation of vacation homes from

all these perspectives is included in the international statistics standards of the United

Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), in both IRTS 2008 and 2008 TSA: RMF[1].

DOI 10.1108/16605370910963491 VOL. 64 NO. 2 2009, pp. 19-27, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1660-5373 j TOURISM REVIEW j PAGE 19

Cristi Frent¸ is Tourism

Researcher at the National

Institute of Research

Development in Tourism,

Bucharest, Romania.

Received: 23 October 2008

Revised: 30 January 2009

Accepted: 3 February 2009