Knowledge on economic impacts of tourism on regional and local levels as platform for tourism policy strategies

This project aims at meeting the call for knowledge related to economic impacts of tourism as a basis for adequate tourism policy making. The basis of our proposal is the wide experience from tourism impact assessment at the Institute of Transport Economi cs (TØI), combined with the economic modelling and national accounting competences of our co-operating researchers. Our joint effort will be targeted towards establishing adequate methodologies in studies of production effects, value added (contribution t o GDP), employment and other essential topics within tourism impact studies on different geographical levels. Essential issues comprise establishment of new regional tourism satellite accounts, assessment of the previously applied input/output model appro ach in Norway and preparation for application of a computable general equilibrium model (CGE). The project will comprise data requirements and data collection methods on different geographical levels; nationally, regionally, and in local communities and p articular local destinations. We will assess to what degree available tourism statistics (and other relevant empirical resources) represent barriers and constraints as regards exploitation of relevant and acknowledged impact assessment methodology. This e mphasis on methodology and empirical resources also includes discussions of how tourism statistics collection should be organised and designed at different levels and in various contexts. It will also focus the role and relevance of general public periodi cal statistics, other publicly organised surveys, and ad hoc (project-related) data collection. The project also comprises two applied research sub-projects concerning specific tourism contexts. They are assessing impacts of particular visitor sites (att ractions, attraction clusters and events) and of new ownership concepts in the accommodation sector, respectively, including assessment and application of adequate methodology.