Quarterly Business Conditions Survey for the Traveller Accommodation Industry

Detailed information for third quarter 2004

This pilot survey seeks opinions about current and future business conditions for the Traveller Accommodation Industry. The information will be used to produce an early broadly-based summary of business opinion regarding impediments to trade, current and future business activity, and employment.

Data release - data for this pilot survey were never released

• Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s)
• Description
• Data sources and methodology
• Data accuracy

Description

This pilot survey seeks informed opinions of industry participants about current and future conditions in their industry. Our objective is to produce good co-incident and leading indicators for the traveller accommodation industry specifically, and the tourism sector in general. These business tendency indicators measure: impediments to trade, current business activity and business activity outlook for the next three months.

Measurable indicators such as occupancy rates and employee hours are used as business activity indicators. This pilot project was funded by industry partners, the Canadian Tourism Commission and the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Recreation.

This survey collects information for establishments classified to sub-sector 7211 (Traveller Accommodation) according to the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) (e.g, hotels, motels, resorts, bed and breakfasts, and other establishments providing accommodation for travellers).

The data are used by business operators and associations for market analysis and assessment of industry performance, operating characteristics and trends; by governments to develop national and regional economic policies; by agencies such as the Canadian Tourism Commission and the Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Recreation for analysis and policy making and for providing valuable statistics and information feedback to the industries; and by Statistics Canada for maintaining important data input to the preparation of the Canadian System of National Accounts.

Reference period: Quarter

Subjects

• Accommodation and food
• Business, consumer and property services
• Business performance and ownership
• Current conditions

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The target population consists of all statistical establishments (sometimes referred to as firms or units) classified as Traveller Accommodation (NAICS 7211) according to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) during the reference year. For a brief description of Traveller Accommodation, please refer to the link below.

• Additional documentation

Instrument design

This is a pilot survey and the survey questionnaires were developed with extensive consultations with the Canadian Tourism Commission, Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Recreation and industry representatives.

The pilot survey was conducted for 6 quarters (Quarter 4 2003 to Quarter 1 2005) before official data were released. This was undertaken to determine if respondents could answer survey questions. It also enabled the development of a reliable time series and ensured that the business tendency indicators compared well with other tourism indicators.

Sampling

This is a sample survey with a cross-sectional design and a longitudinal follow-up.

Even though the basic objective of the survey is to produce estimates for the whole industry--all incorporated and unincorporated businesses--not all businesses are surveyed.

The frame is the list of establishments from which the portion eligible for sampling is determined and the sample is taken. The frame provides basic information about each firm, including: address, industry classification, and information from administrative data sources (as discussed above). The frame is maintained by Statistics Canada's Business Register, and is updated using administrative data.

Prior to the selection of a random sample, establishments are classified into homogeneous groups (i.e., groups with the same NAICS codes, and same geography (province/territory)).

Data sources

Responding to this survey is voluntary.

Data are collected directly from survey respondents.

Data are collected through a fax-out/fax-back process, while providing respondents with the option of telephone. Follow-up procedures are applied when a questionnaire has not been received after a pre-specified period of time.

View the Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s) .

Error detection

Data are examined for inconsistencies and errors using automated edits coupled with analytical review. Every effort is made to minimize the non-sampling errors of omission, duplication, reporting and processing.

Estimation

As part of the estimation process, survey data are weighted by revenue to produce final industry estimates and are based on a sub-sample of the Annual Survey of Traveller Accommodation. The weights are based on the revenue size reported to the Annual Survey of Traveller Accommodation.

The balance of opinion is determined by subtracting the proportion of traveller accommodation businesses that stated their business activity would be "lower" from the proportion who believed their activity would be "higher".

Quality evaluation

Prior to publication, combined survey results are analyzed for comparability; in general, this includes a detailed review of: individual responses (especially for the largest companies), general economic conditions and historic trends.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects which could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

Data accuracy

While considerable effort is made to ensure high standards throughout all stages of collection and processing, the resulting estimates are inevitably subject to a certain degree of error. These errors can be broken down into two major types: non-sampling and sampling.

Non-sampling error is not related to sampling and may occur for many reasons. For example, non-response is an important source of non-sampling error. Population coverage, differences in the interpretation of questions, incorrect information from respondents, and mistakes in recording, coding and processing data are other examples of non-sampling errors.

Sampling error occurs because population estimates are derived from a sample of the population rather than the entire population. Sampling error depends on factors such as sample size, sampling design, and the method of estimation. An important property of probability sampling is that sampling error can be computed from the sample itself by using a statistical measure called the coefficient of variation (CV). The assumption is that over repeated surveys, the relative difference between a sample estimate and the estimate that would have been obtained from an enumeration of all units in the universe would be less than twice the CV, 95 times out of 100. The range of acceptable data values yielded by a sample is called a confidence interval. Confidence intervals can be constructed around the estimate using the CV. First, we calculate the standard error by multiplying the sample estimate by the CV. The sample estimate plus or minus twice the standard error is then referred to as a 95% confidence interval.

For the Quarterly Business Conditions Survey for the Traveller Accommodation Industry CVs were calculated for each estimate. Generally, the more commonly reported variables obtained very good CVs (10% or less), while the less commonly reported variables were associated with higher but still acceptable CVs (under 25%). The CVs are available upon request.