6.4. Outbound tourism and travel statistics

Outbound trip – a trip that has a main destination outside the country of reference. In one outbound trip, visitor might visit more than one foreign country either as a destination or transit.

Outbound tourism trip – related to outbound trip, the travel of a visitor from the time of leaving his/her usual residence outside the country of reference until he/she returns: it thus, refers to a round-trip. (Is it trip outside the home country or trip to a foreign country?)

Outbound trip duration – the total consecutive calendar dates spends by visitor during an outbound trip. The calculation starts from the first visitor’s presence in a foreign country right after his/her presence in country of reference until his/her last presence in the same or different foreign country in the trip right before his/her presence in the country of reference.  (When will be the start? When will be the end? How is the duration measured exactly?)

Outbound country stay – the presence of a visitor in a specific foreign country during an outbound trip. (The consecutive time could be decided by the country, e.g. one (1), four (4), or six (6) consecutive hours). 

Same-day trip – a round-trip outside the country of reference in one day. A visitor might visit a main destination and several secondary destinations during one day.

Same-day stay – related to outbound stay, for same-day stay, visitor presents in a foreign country not until overnight.

Overnight trip – a round trip outside the country of reference for several days wherein each day might have a different destination country which is usually the one at which the night is spent (regardless of the actual resting place).

Overnight stay – a visitor is considered to have had an overnight stay/visit in a foreign country if the visitor is believed to have spent the night there up until a certain hour before or in the morning, depending on the country. (A foreign country wherein a night is spent regardless of the actual rest/resting place).  

Outbound tourism concept might be defined independently as a trip from an exit gate (the place with an airport, seaport, train station, etc.) in the country of origin to country of destination then back again to the origin. This concept purely can be tracked using outbound roaming data only which assuming gap between detected foreign countries are either visitors presence in their country of origin or stay in the a detected foreign country.

Combining with domestic data would get rich information related to visitor presence to fill the outbound data gap. The same condition is applied for filling domestic data gap which might be found by outbound data. Using domestic data also will provide visit information before and after outbound trip from/to visitor’s home (usual environment).

Country of (usual) residence – the country in which a person spends the majority of the year (at least 183 days/6 months).  The concept of residence is one year (see IRTS2008, SNA 2008, Population and Housing Manuals, Migration Manual). However, obtaining data that is more than a year from MNO is often difficult, especially when the data are huge. In this case, data that are more than 6 months (older concept) could be used.

Country of origin – refer to a country a where a person’s SIM card is originally from.

Cross-roaming – a situation where a person might use two or more different MNOs in the foreign country.

Duration of the trip/visit/stay – mobile positioning provides a means to measure the duration of the visit in total hours, days present, nights spent. Duration of travelling to and from the destination can be identified and excluded. Total hours and nights spent per trip can be summarised for all aggregation levels. However, days present cannot be summarised (which differs from the official definition - see 3.1).

Main destination – a specific country visited by visitor where most of his/her time was spent during the trip. In the case more than one country has same duration of visitor’s spending time in the trip, the country farthest from visitor’s country of (usual) residence is the main destination.

Overnight stay – the criterion to distinguish tourists (overnight visitor, overnight visits) from same-day visitors. A visitor is considered to have had an overnight stay/visit in a country if the visitor is believed to have stayed there until 4 AM or more (a country in which a night is spent regardless of the actual rest/resting place). 4 AM is functional midnight parameter, but there is a room for diversion depend on the country decision (specific case).

Overnight visitor/visit/trip –the term is used to specifically distinguish visits that focus on the duration of the stay at a specific place in a country.

Same-day visitor/visit/trip (excursionist) – a visitor whose visit does not include an overnight stay.

Secondary destination - as opposed to the main destination, is a place to which a visitor makes a visit (stays) in addition to the main destination for a period longer than the minimum duration of stops to be considered as being tourism visits.

Tourism – the activity of visitors who are taking a trip to a main destination which is outside the usual environment, lasting less than a year, and which is for any main purpose, including business, leisure or other personal purpose, other than being employed by a resident entity at the location that has been visited. The main characteristics are similar to the official definition, although persons who are employed by a resident entity in the location that has been visited cannot be excluded from MPD (which differs from the official definition – see 3.1).

Tourism trip – trip taken by visitors.

Tourist (overnight visitor) – a visitor whose visit includes an overnight stay (which differs from the official definition - see 3.1).

Transit pass-through – as opposed to main destination and secondary destination, a transit pass-through is the place that visitors pass through or stop during a period of time that is less than the minimum duration of stop to be considered as being tourist visits. A transit pass-through does not count as a tourist visit. At a country level, transit pass-through or transit trip/visit are considered as a trip with the purpose of passing through a transit country on one’s way to or from the country that is their main destination.

Transit visitors – a person who stays less than a certain hour as defined by law in a given country during a trip and presumably spends no money there.

Travel SIM card - a specific SIM card that allows user to call, receive call, and use mobile data plan in foreign countries. Usually its price is cheaper than ordinary roaming cost using country of reference’s SIM card. Travel SIM card has the same MCC and MNC of country of reference, but it might not be used by people connected in any way to the country of reference. Not all MNOs issue travel SIM card. 

Trip – refers to the journey of an individual from the time at which that individual departs from their place of residence (or country of residence) until they return; it therefore refers to a round trip. 

Usual environment – usual environment can be defined with precision regarding country of reference, province, municipality or some other geographical areas or administrative units. The level of detail used depends on the data available and producers’ needs (which differs from the official definition - see 3.1).

Visit – refers to a stay in a place visited during a tourism trip. The stay does not need to be overnight to qualify as a tourism visit. Nevertheless, the notion of stay supposes that there is a stop. Entering a geographical area without stopping there does not qualify as a visit to that area. The concept of a visit depends on the level of the geography in which it is used. It can mean either the whole tourism-related trip or only a part of it.

Visitor – a traveller taking a trip to a main and/or secondary destination(s) outside their usual environment, for less than a year (differs from the official definition - see 3.1).