A more common approach to estimating economic impacts of tourism is to directly survey tourists to estimate their spending. Estimates of spending can be translated into the resulting jobs and income in a given area using appropriate economic ratios and multipliers. The direct survey method is more applicable to estimating impacts of particular actions on a local economy, e.g., what is the impact of a new 100 site campground or a museum that will attract 50,000 visitors to the area. These more focused impact studies frequently also include multiplier effects of tourist spending on a region, as they focus more directly on impacts using a with vs without framework to evaluate impacts of a particular action. Economic impacts may be estimated in terms of spending, sales, income, value added, tax revenues and employment.
Tourists are generally visitors from outside the region of interest.
Reliable estimates of tourism activity and spending frequently require that tourists be divided into distinct segments with different spending patterns. Visitation estimates can be made from a variety of sources including surveys and various visitor counting methods. Average spending of tourists on trips can be measured in visitor spending studies, either by sampling trips at destination areas or asking about recent trips in a household survey. Because spending varies widely across types of trips, we recommend a segmented approach. We do not recommend using multipliers without an understanding of the various types and how they should be used.