Commerce To Measure Travel's Contribution To GDP

The U.S. Department of Commerce is in the midst of doing something that the travel industry has wanted for several years--creating a satellite account to track the contributions that travel and tourism make to the overall U.S. economy.

Already in pilot form, the satellite account will enable official comparisons with other industry sectors to be made on an apples-to-apples basis, using the same National Income account structure that configures gross domestic product.

What made this possible, according to director of DOC's office of travel and tourism industries Helen Marano, was $500,000 in funding that Congress provided to refine data and purchase additional data sets, examine the sales and demand sides of the equation, pay staff salaries and computerize the system.

Building on work done by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Commerce Department is seeking to create a bridge between the old SIC system to the new North American Industry Classification System, developed trilaterally with Canada and Mexico.

Meanwhile, DOC also is working to create a new measuring tool for the demand side, the North American Product Classification System, which will track, among other products and services, airline, lodging and restaurant sales.