TOTAL TOURISM-RELATED SALES UP 1.1 PERCENT IN THIRD QUARTER 2004

Total sales of tourism-related goods and services grew at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.1 percent in the third quarter of 2004 to $973.3 billion, according to preliminary estimates of the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. This was the slowest growth in total tourism-related sales since the third quarter of 2002, when sales declined 3.0 percent. Growth in the sales of traveler accommodations, food services and drinking places, recreation and entertainment, and shopping of $10.9 billion were offset by a decline in the sales of passenger air transportation and all other transportation-related commodities of $8.3 billion.

Direct tourism sales – goods and services sold directly to visitors – accounted for $550.9 billion of the total. Another $422.4 billion was derived from indirect tourism sales – those goods and services used to produce what visitors buy. While direct tourism sales have grown at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 6.9 percent since their fourth quarter 2001 trough, direct tourism employment has grown only 0.5 percent (seasonally adjusted annualized rate) since the fourth quarter of 2001. (Sales are in current dollars; real dollar figures are not available.)

Other sales-related highlights include:

• Direct tourism-related sales increased 0.9 percent in the third quarter of 2004.
• Direct sales of traveler accommodations, food services and drinking places, recreation and entertainment, and shopping grew at an average rate of 7.3 percent to $348.7 billion.
• Direct sales of passenger air transportation decreased 17.6 percent to $92.0 billion, reflecting a significant decline in airfares and a relatively smaller drop in passenger volume.
• Direct sales of all other transportation-related goods and services dropped 1.1 percent to $110.1 billion.
• Total sales of all tourism-related commodities grew 7.8 percent (seasonally adjusted annual rate, revised) in the second quarter of 2004, and 10.9 percent in the first quarter of 2004.

Direct tourism-related employment grew by 7,300 employees (seasonally adjusted at annual rates) in the second quarter 2004, the most recent quarter for which data are available. For the second consecutive quarter, the largest gains in tourism employment occurred in the food services and drinking places industry, which added 3,000 jobs, and the recreation and entertainment industry, which added 2,100 jobs. The traveler accommodations and air transportation industries each contributed an additional 700 new jobs. In the first quarter of 2004, direct tourism employment grew 2.0 percent (revised).

BEA’s estimates of tourism-related sales include figures for both “direct” and “indirect” sales. Direct tourism-related sales comprise all output consumed directly by visitors (e.g., traveler accommodations, passenger air transportation, souvenirs); indirect tourism-related sales comprise all output used as inputs in the process of producing direct tourism-related output (e.g., toiletries for hotel guests, the various ingredients used to make the meals served airline passengers, and the plastic used to produce souvenir key chains). Indirect sales were estimated using commodity-by-commodity total requirements coefficients from BEA’s annual input-output accounts.

BEA’s estimates of tourism-related employment measure “direct” tourism-related employment. Direct tourism-related employment comprises all jobs where the workers are engaged in the production of direct tourism-related output (e.g., hotel staff, airline pilots, and souvenir sellers).

Next release – Travel and Tourism Activity for fourth quarter 2004 will be released March 14, 2005 at 8:30 a.m. EST. BEA’s data – including GDP, personal income, the balance of payments, foreign direct investment, the input-output accounts, and economic data for states, local areas, and industries – are available on its Web site: www.bea.gov.