News Release
Travel and Tourism Satellite Accounts, 2nd quarter 2014
Real spending on travel and tourism turned up in the second quarter of 2014, increasing at an annual rate of 2.1 percent after decreasing 1.1 percent (revised) in the first quarter of 2014. Real gross domestic product (GDP) also experienced an upturn, increasing 4.2 percent (second estimate) in the second quarter after decreasing 2.1 percent in the first quarter. All major categories, with the exception of “traveler accommodations” contributed to the increase in the second quarter.
The leading contributors to the upturn in the second quarter were “recreation, entertainment, and shopping,” and “food services and drinking places.” “Recreation, entertainment, and shopping” increased 4.5 percent in the second quarter after decreasing 2.7 percent in the first quarter. “Food services and drinking places” increased 6.5 percent after decreasing 1.8 percent. “Transportation” increased as well, reflecting an upturn in “passenger air transportation” that was partly offset by a downturn in “all other transportation-related commodities.” Partially offsetting these upturns, “traveler accommodations” decreased 0.8 percent in the second quarter after increasing 0.6 percent.
Tourism Prices. Overall growth in prices for travel and tourism goods and services accelerated in the second quarter of 2014, increasing 7.0 percent following a 2.4 percent (revised) increase in the first quarter. This is the largest price increase since the second quarter of 2011. The acceleration was mainly attributable to an upturn in transportation prices, reflecting an upturn in prices for “passenger air transportation,” which increased 8.2 percent in the second quarter after decreasing 4.3 percent in the first quarter. “All other transportation-related commodities,” which includes gasoline and automotive rentals, increased 9.9 percent in the second quarter after increasing 0.6 percent in the first quarter.
Tourism Employment. Employment in the travel and tourism industries accelerated, increasing 2.3 percent in the second quarter of 2014 after increasing 2.1 percent (revised) in the first quarter, marking the 17th consecutive quarter of employment growth. By comparison, overall U.S. employment increased 2.2 percent in the second quarter after increasing 1.5 percent in the first quarter. “Food services and drinking places” was the most significant contributor to employment growth, increasing 3.5 percent.
Total Tourism-Related Output was $1.5 trillion in the second quarter of 2014. It consisted of $892.4 billion (58 percent) of direct tourism spending and $639.7 billion (42 percent) of indirect tourism-related spending.
Total Tourism-Related Employment was 7.7 million jobs in the second quarter of 2014 and consisted of 5.5 million (71 percent) direct tourism jobs and 2.3 million (29 percent) indirect tourism-related jobs.
Definitions
Tourism spending. Total tourism-related spending consists of direct tourism output and indirect tourism output. Direct tourism output comprises all domestically produced goods and services purchased by travelers (for example, traveler accommodations and passenger air transportation). Indirect tourism output comprises all output required to support the production of direct tourism output (for example, toiletries for hotel guests and fuel for airplanes).
Tourism employment. Total tourism-related employment consists of direct tourism employment plus indirect tourism employment. Direct tourism employment comprises all jobs where the workers are engaged in the production of direct tourism output (for example, hotel staff and airline pilots). Indirect tourism employment comprises all jobs where the workers are engaged in the production of indirect tourism output (for example, workers producing hotel toiletries and delivering fuel to airlines).
These statistics are from BEA’s Travel and Tourism Satellite Accounts (TTSAs), which are supported by funding from the Office of Travel and Tourism Industries, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. The current-price statistics of direct tourism output were derived from BEA’s annual TTSAs and from current-price quarterly statistics of personal consumption expenditures from the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs). The real statistics of direct tourism output were developed using price indexes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and real quarterly statistics of personal consumption expenditures from the NIPAs. The statistics of direct tourism employment were derived from the annual TTSAs (revised in June 2014) from BEA, the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW), and Current Employment Statistics (CES) from BLS.
Quarterly statistics are seasonally adjusted and expressed at annual rates, unless otherwise specified. Percent changes are calculated from unrounded data and annualized. Real values are in chained (2009) dollars. Price indexes are Fisher chain-type measures. Growth in overall U.S. employment is calculated using BLS total nonfarm employment from Current Employment Statistics, www.bls.gov/ces/home.htm#data.
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Next release – Travel and Tourism statistics for third quarter 2014 will be released on Thursday, December 18, 2014 at 8:30 A.M. EST