REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the implementation of Regulation (EU) No 692/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning European statistics on tourism
Date: 2016-07-29
Institutions: European Commission, Eurostat
Subjects: EU statistics, data collection, tourism statistics

EUROPEAN 
COMMISSION 

Brussels, 29.7.2016  
COM(2016) 489 final 

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 

on the implementation of Regulation (EU) No 692/2011 of the European Parliament and 
of the Council concerning European statistics on tourism 

EN 

   EN 

 
 
 
 
  
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 

1. 

Introduction ........................................................................................................................2 

2.  Overview of European statistics on tourism.......................................................................3 

3. 

Implementing measures and delegated acts........................................................................3 

4. 

Implementation of the Regulation ......................................................................................4 

5.  Measures taken to reduce burden on businesses ................................................................8 

6.  Outlook ...............................................................................................................................9 

7.  Conclusions ......................................................................................................................10 

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REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 

THE COUNCIL 

on the implementation of Regulation (EU) No 692/2011 of the European Parliament 
and of the Council concerning European statistics on tourism 

1.  INTRODUCTION 

Regulation  (EU)  No  692/2011  on  European  tourism  statistics1  established  a  common 
framework  for  the  systematic  development,  production  and  dissemination  of  statistics  on 
tourism in the European Union. It reflected the changes in the nature of the tourism economy 
and  of  tourist  behaviour  that  had  occurred  since  the  entry  into  force  of  Council  Directive 
95/57/EC,2 and it responded to the ensuing changes in user needs. 

Article 7 of the Regulation states that: ‘By 12 August 2016 and every 5 years thereafter, the 
Commission  shall  submit  an  evaluation  report  to  the  European  Parliament  and  to  the 
Council  on  the  statistics  compiled  pursuant  to  this  Regulation  and,  in  particular,  on  their 
relevance and the burden on business’. 

The present report is the first report submitted pursuant to the above article. 

Section 2 of this report gives an overview of European statistics on tourism, in particular the 
requirements laid down in the Regulation. 

Section  3  gives  an  overview  of  and  rationale  for  the  implementing  measures  and  delegated 
acts adopted. 

Section  4  takes  stock  of  how  the  Regulation  has  been  implemented,  with  reference  to  the 
established quality criteria for official statistics. 

Section 5 focuses on measures taken to reduce the burden on businesses. 

Section 6, finally, takes a forward look at measures that could be considered with a view to 
update the legal framework, in light of the conclusions of earlier sections. It also assesses the 
impact  that  new  user  needs  and  new  data  sources  could  have  on  the  system  of  tourism 
statistics set out in the Regulation. 

1 Regulation (EU) No 692/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 July 2011 concerning 
European statistics on tourism and repealing Council Directive 95/57/EC (OJ L 192, 22.7.2011, p. 17). 

2 Council Directive 95/57/EC of 23 November 1995 on the collection of statistical information in the field of 
tourism (OJ L 291, 6.12.1995, p. 32). 

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2.  OVERVIEW OF EUROPEAN STATISTICS ON TOURISM 

The  European  Union’s  tourism  industry  occupies  an  important  place  in  the  economy  of  all 
Member  States,  with  tourist  activities  representing  a  large  source  of  employment.  Any 
assessment  of  its  competitiveness  requires  a  good  knowledge  of  the  volume  of  tourism,  its 
characteristics, the profile of the tourist, the level of tourism expenditure and the benefits for 
European  economies.  Regulation  (EU)  No  692/2011  on  European  tourism  statistics  is  the 
primary  basis  for  official,  harmonised  statistics  on  tourism  supply  and  demand.  The 
Regulation  covers,  on  the  one  hand,  data  on  capacity  and  occupancy  of  EU  tourist 
accommodation  establishments  and,  on  the  other,  data  on  trips  made  by  EU  residents.  The 
first is typically collected from businesses in the accommodation sector (monthly and annual 
data transmitted by Member States to the Commission, in the form of aggregate tables); the 
latter is typically collected via household surveys (annual data transmitted, partly in the form 
of aggregate tables, partly in the form of microdata). 

Outside  the  strict  scope  of  the  Regulation,  Eurostat  regularly  releases  tourism-related 
information of a more economic nature based on related business or social statistics. 

Comprehensive  data  sets,  summary  tables  and  corresponding  articles  are  available  on  the 
Eurostat website, easily accessible via the tourism statistics domain3. 

3.  IMPLEMENTING MEASURES AND DELEGATED ACTS 

Regulation  (EU)  692/2011  stipulates  that  the  Commission  is  to  define,  in  the  form  of 
implementing acts, the arrangements for and structure of the quality reports (Article 6(4)) and 
the  practical  arrangements  for  the  transmission  of  data  (Articles  9(2)  and  9(3)).  For  this 
purpose, Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1051/2011 was adopted.4 

Regulation (EU) No 692/2011 empowers the Commission to adopt delegated acts: 

•  amending the definitions to reflect changes to international definitions (Article 2(2)); 

•  amending the deadlines for data transmission to take account of economic, social and 

technical developments (Article 9(5)); and 

•  adapting the Annexes to take account of economic, social and technical developments. 
The Commission may not, however, change provisions in the Annexes on the optional 
nature of the required data and the limitation of the scope (Article 3(2)). 

3 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/tourism 

4 Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1051/2011 of 20 October 2011 implementing Regulation (EU) 
No 692/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning European statistics on tourism, as 
regards the structure of the quality reports and the transmission of the data (OJ L 276, 21.10.2011, p. 13), 
amended by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 81/2013 of 29 January 2013 amending 
Implementing Regulation (EU) No 1051/2011 as regards the microdata files for the transmission of data (OJ L 
28, 30.1.2013, p.1). 

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So  far,  the  Commission  has  adopted  one  delegated  act,  Commission  Delegated  Regulation 
(EU) No 253/2013,5 which amended certain definitions relating to educational attainment, to 
reflect changes made to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED). 

As required under Article 11(2) of Regulation (EU) No 692/2011, a report in respect of the 
delegation of power was adopted by the Commission on 20 January 2016.6 

4.  IMPLEMENTATION OF THE REGULATION 

Pursuant  to  Regulation  (EU)  No  692/2011,  Member  States  collect,  compile,  process  and 
transmit harmonised statistics on tourism supply and demand. The Commission assesses the 
quality of the transmitted data and publishes the data on the Eurostat website in the form of 
tables,  multi-dimensional  databases  or  analytical  articles.  This  section  evaluates  the 
implementation of the Regulation based on standard quality criteria for European statistics. 

4.1. Relevance 

Relevance  refers  to  the  degree  to  which  statistics  meet  the  current  and  potential  needs  of 
users. 

Better  addressing  user  needs  is  a  main  objective  of  Regulation  (EU)  No  692/2011.  The 
European  statistics  on  tourism  that  are  currently  produced  have  improved  the  completeness 
and timeliness with which data are now available to users. For example, most of the monthly 
data  are  transmitted  within  8  weeks  after  the  reference  month  whereas  previously  the 
transmission deadline was 3 to 6 months. The Regulation better captures the changed nature 
of  tourism  behaviour,  which  includes  the  growing  importance  of  short  trips  and  same-day 
visits, the increasing importance of non-rented accommodation or accommodation in smaller 
establishments, and the growing impact of the internet on tourist bookings and on the tourism 
industry. 

The Regulation also requires the transmission of microdata to the Commission for part of the 
data. As compared with the transmission of aggregated data, this innovation enables a more 
detailed  and  flexible  analysis  of  economic  and  social  phenomena  in  the  tourism  sector. 
Tourism  in  Europe  has  a  predominantly  intra-European  dimension.  This  means  that  the 
microdata coming from harmonised European statistics on the demand for outbound tourism 
provides  a  source  of  statistics  on  inbound  tourism  demand  for  the  Member  State  of 
destination, without imposing any additional burden and avoiding any duplicated observation 
of  tourism  flows.  Eurostat  has  produced  analytical  reports  on  inbound  tourism  based  on 
outbound flows observed by other countries. However, the availability of data is — for some 

5 Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 253/2013 of 15 January 2013 amending Annex II to Regulation 
(EU) No 692/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council, as regards adaptations following the 
revision of the International Standard Classification of Education ISCED in relation to the variables and 
breakdowns to be submitted (OJ L 79, 21.3.2013, p. 5). 

6 COM(2016) 4. 

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countries — hampered  by  the  low  sample size of trips from certain origin countries, which 
affects  in  particular  data  availability  for  less  popular  destination  countries.  A  number  of 
countries  are  exploring  if  this  source  could  be  used  to  partly  replace  current  (expensive) 
border  surveys  or  as  input  for  other  official  statistics  (e.g. the  travel  item  of  the  balance  of 
payments statistics services account). 

It  is  important  to  make  sure  that  European  statistics  can,  in  the  future,  assess  the 
macroeconomic importance of tourism and its impact on the environment. To do so, Article 5 
of Regulation (EU) No 692/2011 refers to pilot studies on the development, production and 
dissemination of harmonised tables for tourism satellite accounts and to the development of 
data  showing  the  effects  of  tourism  on  the  environment.  As  regards  the  harmonised  tables, 
Eurostat asked Member States to transmit, on a voluntary basis, available national data on the 
macroeconomic  dimension  of  tourism  (using  the  internationally  accepted  framework  of 
tourism satellite accounts). The results were published in publicly available working papers. 
This is a significant step towards harmonised data at EU level. As regards the environment 
aspect, Eurostat is following up the work carried out by the European Environment Agency, 
the OECD and the UN World Tourism Organisation, among others, and provides data input 
to  indicator  systems  on  sustainable  tourism.  However,  given  the  pressure  on  resources  to 
implement the Regulation’s requirements for regular data production, the putting in place of a 
broader programme of pilot studies was not feasible in recent years. 

User feedback following the entry into force of the Regulation and the increased data output 
has generally been positive. The European statistics on tourism are supporting the decision-
making  of  European  businesses,  of  local,  regional  and  national  administrations  and  of 
European  institutions  or  other  international  stakeholders  (OECD,  UN  World  Tourism 
Organisation).  Notwithstanding  the  achievements  of  the  Regulation  up  to  now,  gaps  in 
European  tourism  statistics  remain,  such  as  in  the  areas  of  better  coverage  of  the 
(macro)economic  dimension  and  of  new  phenomena  in  the  tourism  sector  (e.g.  the  sharing 
economy). 

4.2. Accuracy 

Accuracy refers to the closeness of estimates to the unknown true values. 

In line with the subsidiarity principle, Member States are free to decide the most efficient and 
effective ways of collecting and processing the data, in accordance with national systems and 
available  national  sources,  subject  to  the  condition  that  ‘Member  States  shall  take  any 
measures they deem appropriate to maintain the quality of the results’ (Article 8). 

Each year, Member States provide a report on the quality of the data. These metadata reports 
are available on the Eurostat website. More detailed quality reports are available for internal 
use only. 

Since the entry into force of the Regulation, the request for more data validation to be done 
by Member States has improved overall data quality (including a reduction in missing data). 

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More sophisticated data validation services (adding consistency checks for year-to-year and 
intra-database data) have further improved the quality of results. 

Nevertheless, certain accuracy issues remain and need continued monitoring. 

The  data  on  capacity  and  occupancy  of  tourist  accommodation  establishments  (usually 
collected  from  businesses)  can  show  some  under-coverage,  namely  entities  not  included  in 
the register. A more harmonised approach for the use of thresholds (see also Section 5) has 
reduced these inconsistencies across the EU. Furthermore, work has been done to better align 
the registers held by tourism administrations with the general business register established in 
national statistical offices. In recent years, the growing use of rented accommodations via so-
called  sharing-economy  platforms  has  put  the  coverage  issue  in  the  spotlight.  Its 
measurement will be a challenge in the years to come. 

Data  on  tourism  trips  (collected  from  households)  are  based  on  sample  surveys  and  can  be 
affected by the known limitations of such sample surveys: sampling error (only a subset of 
the population is observed) and non-sampling error (e.g. non-response errors). One particular 
issue  affecting  tourism  statistics  is  the  recall  bias  or  memory  effect  —  this  leads  to 
underestimating the true tourism flows due to an unintended under-reporting by respondents. 
Guidelines  aiming  at  minimising  this  effect  have  been  provided  to  Member  States  in  the 
Methodological Manual for Tourism Statistics (see also Section 4.6). 

4.3. Timeliness and punctuality 

Timeliness refers to the period between the availability of the information and the event or 
phenomenon it describes; punctuality refers to the time lapse between the date of the release 
of the data and the target date by which the data should have been delivered. 

Tourism  data  are  not  released  following  strict  target  dates  or  release  calendars,  but  on  a 
continuous  basis  at  the  pace  of  the  reception  and  validation  of  data  received  from  Member 
States.  In  general,  within  a  few  days  after  the  data  transmission  to  the  Commission,  the 
statistics  are  available  to  users.  Recent  revisions  to  the  Eurostat  internal  production  system 
led to a faster release of figures covering all Member States. 

Regulation  (EU)  No  692/2011  has  fostered  the  improved  timeliness  of  tourism  statistics 
through shortened transmission deadlines. Member States have performed well in meeting the 
shortened  transmission  deadlines  with  more  than  90 %  of  monthly  datasets  arriving  before 
the deadline. Only 1.5 % of the data is arriving with more than a one-week delay. As regards 
the more comprehensive annual data, 86 % of the accommodation data arrives within the six 
months deadline; for data on trips (including microdata files) a few Member States record a 
delay exceeding one week. In all cases, improvements were observed since the first reference 
year  under  the  Regulation.  Exceptional  cases  where  data  are  not  delivered  are  closely 
followed via the compliance monitoring used in the European Statistical System. 

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4.5. Accessibility and clarity 

Accessibility and clarity refer to the conditions and means by which users can obtain, use and 
interpret data. 

All data provided by Member States, and the respective aggregates for the EU as a whole, are 
freely available on Eurostat’s website.7 For reasons of confidentiality, the microdata is used 
for compiling detailed tables that are then published. However, under very strict conditions 
and subject to approval of the Member States, microdata can in the future be made available 
for research purposes. 

Users  can  access  European  statistics  on  tourism  via  three  main  channels  on  the  Eurostat 
website: 

1.  Under  the  heading  ‘Tables’,  pre-defined  two-dimensional  tables  cover  the  most 
common data needs in a quick and very clear way for less frequent or less specialised 
users. 

2.  Under the heading ‘Database’, multi-dimensional tables are available that allow users 
to make more advanced and detailed queries on the data. Upon user request, Eurostat 
provides customised extractions to answer very specialised or detailed data needs. 

3.  Regularly  updated  articles  provide  an  easy  entry  to  tourism  statistics,  combining 

graphs, tables and analysis on a wide range of tourism-related subjects. 

Several  times  a  year,  data  releases  are  accompanied  with  widely  distributed  press  releases. 
The  data  obtained  under  Regulation  (EU)  No  692/2011  is  often  complemented  with  other 
sources of official statistics in order to present a more comprehensive picture of the economic 
or employment development of tourism industries. In addition, tourism statistics contribute to 
general Eurostat publications such as the Regional Yearbook. Internal monitoring reports of 
Eurostat website activity frequently rank tourism statistics among the most consulted areas of 
European statistics. This underlines the relevance and accessibility of the data. For instance, 
in number of page visits in 2015, the tourism article in the Regional Yearbook ranked second, 
after the regional GDP figures. 

Accessibility and clarity of tourism statistics is also promoted by using modern visualisation 
tools that give users a quick snapshot of tourism features. Such tools have been embedded in 
the Virtual Tourism Observatory maintained by the European Commission. 

4.6. Comparability 

Comparability  refers  to  measurement  of  the  impact  of  differences  in  applied  statistical 
concepts,  measurement  tools  and  procedures  where  statistics  are  compared  between 
geographical areas, sectoral domains or over time. 

7 http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/tourism/. 

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European tourism statistics draw on a high degree of harmonisation of concepts, definitions, 
classifications  and  methodologies.  Methodological  issues  are  discussed  in  the  dedicated 
Working  Group  on  Tourism  Statistics,  which  also  encourages  the  exchange  of  experiences 
and common practices within and outside the European Union. 

To  ensure  the  harmonisation,  Regulation  (EU)  No  692/2011  laid  down  basic  principles  on 
definitions  (Article  2),  subjects  covered  and  characteristics  of  the  required  data  (Article  3) 
and scope of observation (Article 4). The basis for the day-to-day harmonisation work is the 
Methodological  Manual  for  Tourism  Statistics  (Article  10).  This  manual  is  prepared  by 
Eurostat  —  in  close  cooperation  with  Member  States  —  and  contains  recommended 
guidelines for the production of tourism statistics. A first edition of the manual was released 
in 2011. Two major revisions have been released since then. The manual has proven to be a 
very  hands-on  repository  for  harmonising  statistics  within  the  EU.  It  is  also  a  reference 
document  for  data  users  and  producers  of  tourism  statistics  outside  the  EU.  The  latter 
contributes  to  Eurostat’s  mission  to  be  the  leading  provider  of  high-quality  statistics  on 
Europe. 

Tourism  statistics  are  fairly  comparable  over  time  and  across  countries  and  regions.  The 
transition  from  Directive  95/57/EC  to  Regulation  (EU)  No  692/2011  caused  only  a  minor 
break  in  series  for  most  countries.  Such  breaks  are  documented  for  users  through  the 
metadata on the Eurostat website or in relevant publications. 

4.7. Coherence 

Coherence refers to the degree to which the data can be reliably combined in different ways 
and for various uses. 

To the extent possible, European tourism statistics indicate a good degree of coherence with 
data produced by national and international organisations. Cross-domain cooperation within 
the  European  Statistical  System  has  also  contributed  to  the  coherence  of  tourism  statistics 
with related data in the economic, business or social areas. 

Internally, the Commission’s data validation services applied for tourism statistics guarantee 
coherence between monthly and annual data, between figures on participation in tourism and 
population statistics, or between the different characteristics of tourism trips. 

5.  MEASURES TAKEN TO REDUCE BURDEN ON BUSINESSES 

Reducing  the  response  burden  on  the  parties  responsible  for  providing  statistical  data,  in 
particular SMEs, is fostered via three main channels. 

Firstly,  Article  8  of  Regulation  (EU)  No  692/2011  allows  Member  States  to  rely  on  the 
following  data  sources:  surveys,  administrative  data,  and  appropriate  statistical  estimation 
procedures. A number of countries collect data from businesses (for example on the capacity 
and occupancy of tourist accommodation establishments) via a sample survey (instead of an 

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exhaustive  census).  Other  countries  make  use  of  administrative  data  held  by  the  local 
authorities, instead of directly addressing suppliers of accommodation. 

Secondly, Annex I to the Regulation allows Member States to limit the scope of observation 
as laid down in Article 4(a) to include only establishments above a certain capacity threshold 
(namely those having 10 or more bed places). Those Member States accounting for less than 
1 % of the total annual number of nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments in the 
EU can further reduce the scope of observation by only including those having 20 or more 
bed  places.  This  latter  threshold  is  applied  to  12  Member  States.  This  limitation  of  scope 
exempts many SMEs active in the tourist accommodation sector from the reporting obligation 
under the Regulation. 

Finally, to allow flexibility concerning the data sources used, a breakdown of accommodation 
occupancy data by size class was made optional. 

6.  OUTLOOK 

6.1. Maintaining the relevance and quality of European statistics on tourism 

The data required under Regulation (EU) No 692/2011 should reflect evolving user needs in 
the  light  of  changes  in  the  tourism  sector  while  taking  into  account  the  burden  on  data 
providers. 

In the medium term, this could possibly require amendments to the Regulation, for instance 
to  update  certain  variables  and  breakdowns,  to  insert  new  requirements  or  to  discontinue 
current  requirements  that  are  now  considered  of  lower  priority.  Regarding  the  latter,  this 
could possibly apply to the optional or triennial data requirements or to the annual metadata 
and  quality  reporting.  During  this  process,  the  outcomes  of  pilot  studies  (Article  5  of  the 
Regulation)  will  also  need  to  be  taken  into  consideration  (in  particular  for  better  and  more 
regularly  assessing  the  macroeconomic  importance  of  tourism  and  its  impact  on  the 
environment).   

Any  initiative  or  proposal  will  focus  on  quality,  in  combination  with  perceived  user 
relevance, and on the impact on burden reduction for administrations or businesses. 

Such  amendments  will  also  explore  further  synergies  with  other  statistical  domains  (e.g. 
travel  surveys,  international  trade  in  services,  use  of  integrated  registers).  In  the  coming 
years, the position of tourism statistics in the modernised  systems of business  statistics  and 
social statistics will also need to be reassessed. This concerns in particular the integration of 
tourism  statistics  into  two  planned  framework  regulations,  one  for  integrating  business 
statistics and the other for integrated European social statistics. 

6.2. Impact of new sources and methods 

In  recent  years,  tourism  statistics  has  been  a  frontrunner  within  the  European  Statistical 
System  as  regards  exploring  new  data  sources  and  methods.  For  example,  a  study  was 

10 

 
 
conducted exploring the feasibility of using mobile positioning data for tourism statistics. Big 
data  offer  a  big  potential  for  tourism  statistics:  information  obtained  from  mobile  network 
operators, from booking or reservation systems, from search engines and internet activities, 
from  electronic  payment  cards  or  from  social  media  could  all  feed  data  into  a  system  of 
tourism statistics. Over a longer term, such new data sources could lead to a revolution rather 
than an evolution in the way European tourism statistics will be produced. The partial shift 
from  data  collection  to  data  connection  will  become  a  major  challenge  for  producers  of 
statistics.  However,  this  shift  has  the  potential  to  provide  richer  and  timelier  knowledge  on 
tourism with a better  detailed  breakdown by time  and  place.  These  new  methods  will  most 
likely  be  more  cost-efficient  and  lower  the  burden  on  businesses.  The  use  of  new  methods 
and  sources,  besides  the  existing  more  traditional  surveys,  will  contribute  to  better 
understanding  aspects  of  the  tourism  sector  that  were  previously  less  —  or  not  —  covered 
(for instance new forms of rented accommodation in the so-called sharing economy). 

6.3. Extending tourism statistics to additional countries 

Further  implementation  of  Regulation  (EU)  No  692/2011  in  the  EU  and  EFTA  Member 
States will continue to focus on quality improvements and burden management. In addition, 
activities  will  continue  with  a  view  to  setting  up  a  system  for  the  development,  production 
and  dissemination  of  European  statistics  on  tourism  in  candidate  countries  and  potential 
candidate countries. Given the importance of the tourism sector for the economies and labour 
markets of many countries that are eligible for the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, 
the alignment of their statistical system to the body of EU law on tourism statistics is of high 
importance. 

7.  CONCLUSIONS 

In a joint effort with Member States, the implementation of Regulation (EU) No 692/2011 led 
to more and better data output of high-quality statistics on tourism. Since 2012, completeness 
and timeliness of the data have improved significantly. 

The European Tourism Statistics envisaged under the Regulation can be considered as up and 
running,  and  providing  relevant  data  to  the  tourism  industry’s  various  stakeholders  and  to 
local, regional, national or international administrations. However, as tourism behaviour and 
the structure of the tourism sector constantly change, and as new data sources and methods 
become available, a close monitoring of the current production and output of Regulation (EU) 
No 692/2011 will remain an important challenge during the coming five years. 

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