Central Statistics Office

Tourism and Travel Section

Skehard Road, Cork, Ireland

Capacity

Capacity data is derived from Failte Ireland registers. Failte Ireland is the national tourism development authority. It maintain registers for accommodation properties that comply with it national quality assurance framework.  Once the establishments meet meet the quality standards and register they are given 'Failte Ireland Approved' certification.  As part of the registration process, hotels and guesthouses must provide information on bedrooms and bedplaces, hostels must provide the number of bedplaces, group properties must provide the number of units and caravan and campsites must provide the number of pitches. In 2022 Failte Ireland began publishing these data in dashboard format. The 2022 dashboard results formed the basis of the capacity dataset.

Occupancy

Historically, occupancy data would have been provided by Failte Ireland. Failte Ireland used its own capacity data, in conjunction with data from the Central Statistics Office's Passenger Card Inquiry (PCI), which compiled statistics on foreign resident visits and bednights, and dat from the Central Statistics Office Household Travel Survey (HTS), which compiled statistics on domestic visits and bednights, to create the occupancy datasets. These datasets would then have been provided to the Central Statistics Office for transmission via eDAMIS. 

Unfortunately, in 2020 Covid-19 completely disrupted this arrangement. For reasons of public health and safety, the PCI, an enumertor administered survey conducted at airports and seaports, was suspended (the HTS was also suspended, albeit only for April-June, as this was a paper-based questionnaire posted to households). This suspension continued into 2021. 

In 2022 the Central Statistics Office began to trial a new data collection instrument, the Passenger Survey. The Passenger Survey was an enumerator led survey using a new electronic questionnaire hosted on a tablet. It essentially asked the same range of questions as the PCI, with further additional details collected on expenditure. However, due to difficulties retaining and rebuilding the former tourism enumeration fieldforce, it was only possible to trial this new survey on a limited basis in Dublin Airport in 2022, to establish proof of concept. Therefore, the Central Statistics Office remained without a reliable source of information on foreign resident visitors in 2022.

To cover a statistical gap left by Covid-19, on information on persons entering and exiting the state, the Central Statistics Office began publishing Air and Sea Travel Statistics (ASTS) in 2020. These were high level passenger flows based on administrative data supplied by airport authorities and ferry operators. Although these passenger flows could not be differentiated into inbound and outbound tourist flows, they nevertheless provided information on the extent of overseas travel during this period. 

The Central Statistics Office used the ASTS data to model foreign visitor arrivals in 2020. Essentially, the residency breakdowns of passengers in 2019 were applied to the ASTS passenger totals, on a route by route basis, and on a monthly basis, to arrive at foreign visitor estimates for 2020. The Central Statistics Office continued this approach through 2021 and into 2022. The Central Statistics Office combined these foreign visitor estimates with domestic visitor estimates from the HTS to compile the occupancy datasets. 

The classification of tourism accommodation establishments used is Nace Rev 2. Hotels, Guesthouses and Bed & Breakfasts are classified as 55.1. Rented accommodation, self-catering cottages, hostels etc. are classified as 55.2. Caravan/Camping sites are classified as 55.3.

The regional classification used is NUTS 2.

Classification by degree of urbanisation (1,2 & 3) and coastal/noncoastal is at Local Administrative Unit (LAU) level 2. Historically, these classifications would have been applied by Failte Ireland, Ireland's tourism development authority. As Failte Ireland was no longer in a position to provide this information, the Central Statistics Office took over responsibility for this classification. Using the data from Faile Ireland's 2022 Acommodation Dashboard, the Central Statistics Office created its own register of tourism establishments. These included the address and postcode of each establishment. Using these addresses and postcodes, the Central Statistics Office assigned each establishment to a Local ELectoral Area (LEA), essentially LAU level 2. Each establishment was thereby assigned its coastal and degree of urbanisation status.  

NACE Rev.2 - 55.1, 55.2 and 55.3

Capacity & Occupancy

Failte Ireland:The statistical unit is the local kind of activity unit (accommodation establishment) offering short-stay accommodation to tourists.

 Central Statistics Office:The statistical unit is the person staying at the accommodation establishment.

Coverage - Time [data comparable since (YYYY)]

Not applicable.

Capacity dataset

(1) Number of tourism establishments

(2) Number of rooms

(3) Number of bedplaces

Occupancy datasets

(1) Number of tourist arrivals (guests)

(2) Number of nights stayed

(3) Bedroom occupancy rate

(4) Bedplace occupancy rate

Not applicable.

The Central Statistics Office adheres to the General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679), which governs the handling of all personal data held by the organisation. In addition, the confidentiality of all data collected by the Central Statistics Office is further guaranteed by law under the Statistics Act 1993.

Capacity 
Capacity data is non-confidential as it is publically available on the Failte Ireland website.

Occupancy 
All necessary precautions are taken during the collection, processing and compilation of the data to ensure that no individual tourism establishment is identifiable. Specifically, no personal identifiers (names, addresses, pasport numbers, etc.) are collected in Central Statistics Office passenger surveys. Data is published in aggregate format only.

The Central Statistics release calendar showing all upcoming publications is available at this website CSO website - Release calendar.

The Central Statistics Office release calendar is publically available to all. 

In a very limited number of cases, pre-release access to the results is available in advance of publication. Pre-release access must be sanctioned by the Director General of the Central Statistics Office. It allows sanctioned users to preview an encrypted file of a statistical release one hour in advance of the publication schedule. It is granted in rare circumstances to allow policy analysts to brief government ministers in advance of the general press release. 

The Central Statistics Office does not directly publish the capacity and occupancy data. These data are compiled for reasons of regulatory compliance only. 

The Central Statistics Office does publish statistics on domestic tourism, including visits and bednights in different accommodation types, in its Household Travel Survey. These data are published quarterly. 

The Central Statistics Office does not directly publish tourism capacity and occupancy statistics. 

The Central Statistics Office does not directly publish tourism capacity and occupancy statistics. 

The Central Statistics Office does not directly publish tourism capacity and occupancy statistics. 

The Central Statistics Office does not compile microdata files for tourism establishment capacity and occupancy. 

The Central Statistics Office does not directly publish tourism capacity and occupancy statistics. 

The Central Statistics Office does not have documentation suitable for external users for the compilation of capacity and occupancy statistics.

The Central Statisitcs Office does not have quality management documentation specifically for capacity and occupancy statistics.

All regular statistical releases within the Central Statistics Offic eare compiled within a Quality Management Framework (QMF). The goal of the QMF is meeting the required standard as set out in the European Statistical System Code of Practice (ESCOP) and the QMF foundations are based on establishing the UNECE’s Generic Statistical Business Process Model (GSBPM) as the operating statistical production model in the Central Statistics Office. All regular statistical releaseas are assessed within this framework with the assistnace of the Central Statistics Office Quality Management Support and Assurance division. As the capacity and occupancy statistics are not published nationally as a separate release, they are not subject to the QMF.

As capacity and occupancy statistics are not published as distinct statistics in their own right at national level, national user satisfaction is not an issue. International user satisfaction is not formally monitored, but it is expected that such satisfaction was negatively impacted in relation to the timeliness of the data. Covid-19 had an enormous impact on the Central Statistics Office schedule of publication of tourism statistics and it has taken a considerable amount of time to recover from this disruption.

12.3.1 Completeness

12.3.2 Thresholds used ("limitation of the scope")

Accuracy for capacity data is affected by coverage issues (see 12.3). Accuracy for domestic visitors and nights is limited by sampling errors. Accurancy for foreign resident visitors is limited by a lack of survey data for 2022. 

13.2.1 Sampling errors - indicators (Occupancy only)

13.2.2 Additional comments on sampling error

13.3.1 Coverage-errors

13.3.2 Unit non-response (for the reference month mentioned under 5.2)

13.3.3 Methods used for dealing with/minimising unit-non response

13.3.4 Item non-response

13.3.5 Additional comments on non-sampling error (e.g. in case the reference month is very different from other months in terms of non-response)

There are no known issues of geographical comparability.

The only relevant cross domain comparison in 2022 is with the Central Statistics Office Household Travel Survey (HTS). The occupancy datasets resident visitors and nights are fully coherent with this data source. 

The datasets are fully coherent internally. 

There is no significant cost and burden as these data are not collected from a dedicated survey. Rather they are an amalgam of different surveys and sources. 

18.1.1 Source data

18.1.2 Population frame

18.1.3 Sampling design

18.1.4 Other or additional comments on source data, population frame or sampling design (e.g. differences per NACE class)

18.3.1 Type of survey

18.3.2 Data collection methods

Bedplace occupancy rates are calculated from the ratio of bedngits stayed to total bednight capacity x 365 days. Bedroom occupancy rates are assigned proportionately.

Not applicable.

2020 was an exceptional year in that Covid-19 completely interrupted the statistical schedule, creating significant data gaps and long delays. In particular, a lack of survey data on foreign resident visitors meant that this information had to be imputed from the limited sources available. Furthermore, the Central Statistics Office assumed responsibility for the creation of the capacity and occupancy datasets from Failte Ireland, who was no longer able to provide this service. On a positive note, this began the process of harmonising the occupancy datasets (specifically the data on domestic visitors and bednights) with the Central Statistics Office own surveys, specifically the Household Travel Survey.

During 2021 the Central Statistical Office frontier surveys remained disrupted due to Covid-19. Therefore, 2021 continued to be a challenging year. However, the Central Statistics Office had now established an alternative methodology to fall back on In this respect, the 2021 compilation represented a continuation of the 2020 compilation processes and meant that the 2021 data was at least methodologically consistent over the two years. 

In 2022 the Central Statistics Office restarted its frontier survey at Dublin Airport on a trial basis, using a new and improved survey instrument and process. Whilst this proved promising, delays in rebuilding the tourism enumeration fieldforce meant is was not possible to fully roll out this new survey across all airports and seaports. Therefore, suitable information on foreign resident visitors remained lacking. Thus, the Central Statisitcs Office had no option but to continue to use the methods applied in 2020 and 2021 to compile the occupancy datasets.