DOI: 10.5255/ukda-sn-6534-1
title: International Passenger Survey, 2010
title: International Passenger Survey, 1993-
title: IPS

description: The data cover four subject areas, termed 'Airmiles', 'Alcohol', 'Qregtown' and 'Qcontact'. One file is produced each quarter per subject area, and the dataset updated quarterly. These files can be joined together using the variables YEAR, SERIAL, FLOW and QUARTER.&lt;br&gt;
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The depositor recommends that only expert users who are very familiar with the coding and weighting structures use these data, as limited support is available. Some considerable understanding of the data is required before meaningful analyses can be made; care must be taken when performing time series operations as codes can vary from year to year and not all variables from one year's dataset are used in other years. &lt;br&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Weighting the IPS&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;
ONS advise that the variable 'fweight' included in the 'Qcontact' dataset should be applied to get an overall weighted profile. This weight is set consistently over time. Other weights are provided to analyse finer detail but no information is provided in the documentation. ONS is currently reviewing the documentation but in the meantime if users have any detailed weighting questions they should contact ONS at: socialsurveys@ons.gov.uk.&lt;br&gt;
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&lt;b&gt;Additional information about data updates in January 2010&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;
ONS has been conducting discontinuity analysis due to the changed design of the IPS in 2009. They have identified that the calculation of expenditure on a subset of survey records has differed in 2009 compared with previous years. The affected records relate to those who have travelled on a package tour. The impact of the revision on overall estimates of earnings and expenditure, based on revisions to the previously published estimates for quarters one and two, has been an increase averaging 1.3 per cent per quarter for earnings and 5.1 per cent per quarter for expenditure. As a result the 'alcohol', 'qregtown' and 'qcontact' data files for quarters one and two have been updated but the 'airmiles' data were unaffected so have not been updated.&lt;br&gt;
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Also, the variables on the data files have been refined slightly. All the core variables previously included are retained but a small number of less prominent variables have been removed and a few others added.&lt;br&gt;
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The first edition of this study, released in August 2010, included data and documentation for Quarter One only. For the second edition (November 2010), data and documentation for Quarter Two were added to the study, and for the third edition (January 2011), data and documentation for Quarter Three were added to the study. For the fourth edition (June 2011), data and documentation for Quarter Four were added to the study. For the fifth edition (August 2011), the previous 16 quarterly data files covering Airmiles, Alcohol, Qregtown and Qcontact have been replaced with four annual data files.&lt;br&gt;
 The &lt;i&gt;International Passenger Survey&lt;/i&gt; (IPS) aims to collect data on both credits and debits for the travel account of the Balance of Payments, provide detailed visit information on overseas visitors to the United Kingdom (UK) for tourism policy, and collect data on international migration.&lt;br&gt;