Data on participation, trips, nights and expenditure are collected.

- Participation in tourism: Number of residents, aged 15 or over, having made at least 1 trip of at least 1 overnight stay. A breakdown by duration and by destination of the trip is provided as well as by socio-demographic characteristics of the tourist.

- Number of tourism trips: All tourism trips made by residents, aged 15 or over, for personal or professional/business purpose, with at least 1 overnight stay.

- Number of tourism nights: All tourism nights spent by residents, aged 15 or over, outside their usual environment for personal or professional/business purpose.

- Expenditure on tourism trips: for Packages, Transport, Accommodation, Expenditures for durable and valuable goods, Other expenditure

For more detailed information please consult Regulation 692/2011, Delegated Regulation 2019/1681 and Methodological Manual for Tourism Statistics 

Trips that started during the reference period of a quarter are covered.

Participation in tourism: the individual.

Tourism trips: the tourism trip with at least one overnight stay made by the individual.

Same-day visits: the SDV made by the individual.

Any person travelling to a place other than that of his/her usual environment for less than twelve months and whose main purpose of trip is other than the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited.

Individuals report details about their trip (main purpose of the travel, transport used etc.) and about their person (socio-demographic profile). Travel expenditure is surveyed for all accompanying household members, and then broken down by individuals.

The statistical population consists of all residents in Austria. The statistical population in 2022 was 7 648 227 individuals. 

Participation in tourism: All residents aged 15 or over.

Tourism trips: All tourism trips of at least one overnight stay made outside the usual environment by the residents aged 15 or over.

Same-day visits: All outbound SDV made outside the usual environment by the residents aged 15 or over.

The statistical population for participation in tourism are all residents aged 15 and over, residing in private households.

Since 1969 (see 3.8.5 additional comments)

Since 1969 (see 3.8.5 additional comments)

Since 2006

Since 2006

Data on participation in tourism and main holiday trips is available on a triennial basis from 1969 until 1998. From 1998 until 2002 the survey was carried out yearly. Since 2000, the Austrian population 15 and older is questioned on a quarterly basis about its travel behaviour concerning short and main holiday and business trips.

Regulation 692/2011

Regulation 1051/2011

Delegated Regulation 2019/1681

Bundesstatistikgesetz 2000

http://www.ris.bka.gv.at/Dokumente/BgblPdf/2003_301_2/2003_301_2.pdf

http://www.ris.bka.gv.at/Dokumente/BgblAuth/BGBLA_2012_II_25/BGBLA_2012_II_25.pdf

https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/Dokumente/BgblPdf/1999_163_1/1999_163_1.pdf

In Austria quarterly sample surveys of the Austrian population 15 and older proved to be the most efficient solution to gather information on domestic and outbound trips. Every quarter 3 500 individuals are questioned about their travel behaviour by means of CATI and CAWI. For reasons of representativeness the gross sample is drawn from the Central Registration Register (CRR) of the Ministry of Interior which allows a stratified random selection.

In general, however, low coverage of long trips (since only trips that started during the reference period of a quarter are subject of the survey) and undercoverage of people that travel a lot is possible due to survey design. There might be a recall problem caused by the retrospective survey design. Likewise, there could be a telescope effect, which means that well-remembered events by respondents are postponed in a given reference period even though they were back longer. Well-remembered events appear closer to the present than they actually were.

CAWI was introduded in 2020 as an additional survey mode. Each quarter, within those individuals from the Central Registration Register (CRR) in the gross sample without available telefone number, 5.000 are drawn and asked to participate in the survey online.

See: Regulation 692/2011

Users are ministries, political institutions, tourism organizations, research institutes, etc.

Data is representative for the resident population older than 15 years and compliant with the requirements of Regulation 692/2011, Delegated Regulation 2019/1681, as well as recommendations of the Methodological Manual for Tourism Statistics.

Trips that started during the reference period of a quarter are covered.

5 766 902

1.67%

943 727

3.99%

28 693 096

2.16%

14 652 515

3.21%

14 040 581

2.88%

25 024 573

2.29%

3 668 525

7.08%

9 097 139

3.27%

5 555 377

6.50%

19 808 677 175

2.85%

7 699 069 755

3.15%

Values checked - difference to Eurobase due to number of decimal places used for weights

There might be a telescope effect, where respondents tend to state trips which actually took place before the quarter in question.

In general, however, low coverage of long trips (since only trips that started during the reference period of a quarter are subject of the survey) and under coverage of people with high travel intensity due to survey design.

149 700

63 310

not applicable

3 615

not applicable

45 625

49 240

78%

See 13.3.3.1 and 18.1.3.2

See 13.3.3.1

Pre-Information letter to the selected individuals, hotline-service for the selected individuals, agent training. CATI data is collected between 4pm and 8pm on weekdays, each quarter 3 data collection shifts are held in the morning from 9am to 1pm.

The gross sample is divided into 1 CAWI and 4 CATI groups: the first CATI group starts the data collection process in the first week of fieldwork, the second CATI group starts in the second week and so on. Fieldwork for CAWI lasts for 5 weeks.

Each group receives the pre-information letter a few days in advance of the field work start. No reminder letter for CAWI yet.

To deal with systematic effects of non-response the data are calibrated.

Since it is a retrospective survey, recall bias is possible concerning various items. Either the respondents do not know some details (e.g. if travel expenses were paid by someone else) or they cannot remember the information required (recall bias).
Interviewer instructions and agent trainings are aimed at minimizing item non-response.

 Imputation rates of the microdata set:

Missing and implausible values on individual questions are replaced after the interviews (imputation). Quantitative and qualitative values are replaced by donors. This approach is based on the assumption that the missing values are linked to other characteristics of the trip. To find adequate donors similarities need to be mathematically expressed by distance functions. The criteria used depend on the missing value. Implausible or inconsistent values, which are rare due to the built in validity check, and missing values are replaced.

Unit non-response: The unit non-response rate cannot be calculated, since the CATI survey is discontinued when the target of 3 000 valid CATI interviews per quarter is reached.

The time lag is 60 days for the last month of the quarter, 90 days for the second month and 120 days for the first month.

The time lag is 60 days for the last month of the quarter, 90 days for the second month and 120 days for the first month.

The time lag is 60 days for the last month of the quarter, 90 days for the second month and 120 days for the first month.

First data transmitted on time. Revised data transmitted 159 days after deadline.

First data transmitted on time. Revised data transmitted 159 days after deadline.

First data transmitted on time. Revised data transmitted 159 days after deadline.

See 3.8.1

The methodology of the sample survey changed over time. From 1969 until 1998 triennial face-to-face interviews about main holiday trips and restrictively about short holiday trips of the Austrian population were made. From 1998 until 2002 face-to-face interviews were made yearly. Since 2000 the Austrian population is questioned quarterly by CATI about its travel behaviour concerning short and main holiday and business trips. In 2005 the survey was organized as a panel. In 2020 CAWI was introduced as an additional survey mode.

Despite those changes comparability is guaranteed over time. 

See 3.8.2.

For some indicators concerning main holiday trips, the time series dates back to 1969. For private and business trips with at least one night spent, the time series starts in 2000. 

See 3.8.3.

SDV are surveyed since 2006. 

Survey

Reiseverhalten der österreichischen Wohnbevölkerung - Quartale Stichprobenerhebungen zum Tages- und Nächtigungsreiseverkehr im In- und ins Ausland

Travel behaviour of the Austrian population - Quarterly sample surveys on domestic and outbound holiday and business tourism.

The CRR is updated constantly.
For reasons of representativeness, the gross sample is drawn from the Central Registration Register (CRR) of the Ministry of Interior which allows a stratified random selection. The CRR is an official register; all persons with permanent or secondary residence in Austria are registered. The CRR provides resident addresses which are linked with the official telephone book.

Undercoverage is taken into account in sampling and weighting procedures.

213 010

61 656 for 4th quarter, where additional questions survey the participation in tourism over the last 12 months

213 010

14 070

3 620 (4th quarter 2022) - the yearly participation in tourism is surveyed with additional questions in q4

14 070

For reasons of representativeness the gross sample is drawn from the CRR. Sampling takes place quarterly and excludes those persons already questioned in the three previous quarters. The procedure is a stratified random selection (1st level: federal province of residence, 2nd level: age, 3rd level: sex). 

For the individuals in the gross sample, telephone numbers are looked up in the official telephone book, by linking it concerning name and address. Out of the data pool of individuals with telephone number available, a sample of about 11 000 individuals is considered for the CATI survey per quarter. Out of the data pool of individuals without telephone number a sample of about 5 000 individuals is considered for the CAWI survey per quarter.

Reiseverhalten der österreichischen Bevölkerung-
Frageprogramm Q4 2022
See Annex

Travel behaviour of the Austrian resident population - Questionnaire Q4 2022 

see Annex

Not available in English

Minors, persons with insufficient knowledge of the German
language, persons physically or mentally unable to answer the
questionnaire (deaf people, demented persons,...)

7 minutes

10 minutes

Plausibility checks are integrated in the questionnaire. Thus, input errors can be detected and corrected immediately. Agents can suppress signals, but must correct hard errors. A second phase of the validation is provided in the context of data processing using R; implausible values on individual level, which are rare due to the built-in questionnaire validity check, are identified as missing values and are replaced during the imputation process. Furthermore, quarter-to-quarter and year-to-year comparisons on aggregated level as well as coherence checks (concerning domestic tourism) ensure a certain quality. The main indicator for measuring the sampling error is the coefficient of variation. The variation is generally low. Estimates are considered precise or reasonably precise.

Imputation:

Missing and implausible values on individual questions are replaced after the interviews. Quantitative and qualitative values are replaced by donors. This approach underlies the presumption that the missing values are linked to other characters of the trip. To find adequate donors similarities are mathematically expressed by distance functions. The criteria used depend on the missing value. Expenditures on package trips are disaggregated.

Extrapolation:

The first weighting step is the computation of the non-response adjusted design weights which are defined as the ratio of the population total in a strata according to the micro census survey and the number of respondents within this stratum. There are 108 strata which are defined by 6 age classes, 9 federal states and 2 genders (non-binary genders are treated with the even/uneven birthday methodology to be assigned to male or female).

The second weighting step is a more detailed non-response adjustment with a logistic regression model with the variables

• income quintil,
• equivalized income quintil,
• employment status,
• citizienship (grouped),
• education
• age groups,
• household size,
• gender and
• (proposed) mode.

The final weighting step is a calibration according to the totals persons by age groups x state x gender, by income quartiles and by education (5 groups).