Traveller Accommodation Services Price Index (TASPI)

Detailed information for second quarter 2016

Status:

Inactive

Frequency:

Quarterly

Record number:

2336

The Traveller Accommodation Services Price Index is a monthly series measuring the price change for short-term accommodation services. Data are collected for leisure and business clients and are used to estimate monthly and quarterly price indexes for the short-term traveller accommodation services industry.

Data release - August 12, 2016

Description

The Traveller Accommodation Services Price Index (TASPI) is a monthly series measuring the price change for short-term accommodation services. These services comprise the provision of rooms for an overnight or short stay without any meals or other services (i.e. parking, Internet, etc.). The index reflects changes in room rates excluding all taxes, and covers hotel and motel lodging services.

The TASPI is a useful indicator of the economic activity in the short-term traveller accommodation services industry and the tourism sector in general. The series can also be used as a measure of one important component of the business travel cost. In addition, the TASPI is used by the Canadian System of National Accounts for the estimation of the real value of the gross output of the short-term traveller accommodation service industry through deflation.

Statistical activity

These indexes are a part of the Services Producer Price Index program (SPPI) at Statistics Canada.

The SPPI program develops and produces price indexes for a wide range of business service categories. This initiative fills an important data gap in the area of economic statistics and has resulted in a more comprehensive set of service price indexes. It also allows Statistics Canada to produce more accurate estimates of real value added of the Gross Domestic Product and changes in productivity.

Reference period: The time period for which the TASPI equals 100; currently this is the year 2013.

Collection period: The TASPI collection process occurs in such a way that each collected price during the collection month corresponds to a booking made for a two-week fixed time interval before the occupancy date.

Subjects

  • Accommodation and food
  • Business, consumer and property services
  • Prices and price indexes
  • Service price indexes
  • Travel and tourism

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The survey universe consists of all establishments involved in the short-term traveller accommodation services industry as identified in the Statistics Canada Business Register. The covered services fall under, the 2012 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), industry group 7211 - Traveller accommodation (72111 - Hotels, except casino hotels and motels, 72112 - Casino hotels and 72119 - Other traveller accommodation).

The survey universe consists of all establishments involved in the short-term traveller accommodation services industry as identified in the Statistics Canada Business Register. The covered services fall under, the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), industry group 7211 - Traveller accommodation (72111 - Hotels (except casino hotels) and motels, 72112 - Casino hotels and 72119 - Other traveller accommodation).

Instrument design

The data are collected from Internet for a selection of representative short-term traveller accommodation services.

Sampling

This is a sample survey with a longitudinal design.

The matched sample for the TASPI is selected from the target population described above. The sample consists of 482 establishments allocated by geographic strata across Canada, in such a way as to ensure good quality estimates for all provinces and territories. Within each stratum, a sample of representative establishments were selected proportional to the accommodation revenues.

Data sources

The price data are collected monthly from Internet. The collection mode based entirely on Internet reflects changes in the market and the behaviour of clients.

Each collected price corresponds to a booking made for a two-week fixed time interval in advance of the occupancy date. This helps to eliminate fluctuations in price resulting from varying advance-booking periods for different reference periods.

The price collected represents the amount received by an establishment (excluding taxes) for offering short-term accommodation services (overnight or short stay) for a specific room and for determined client groups:

- For the leisure clients group, the price represents the regular (or standard) daily rate, for one room booked two weeks in advance for double occupancy (by two adults) on the third Saturday of the collection month.
- For the business clients group, the price represents the business (or corporate) daily rate, for one room booked two weeks in advance for single occupancy (by one adult) on the third Wednesday of the collection month.
Time and effort is devoted to keeping the specifications (i.e. type of rates and conditions) constant such that only the pure changes in price are tracked. Some information are also collected in order to ensure, as much as possible, that the collected rates correspond to the same specifications over time.

Error detection

During the monthly collection and processing of the TASPI, emphasis is placed on the examination and evaluation of prices. Error detection procedures are in place during data processing to identify outliers and incorrect or suspicious data. Such records are further verified against data sources to ensure their accuracy. Data corrections are further applied where necessary.

Imputation

Missing data are generally estimated by an imputation process. In any given period, the daily rates may not be available for collection. In such cases, the missing prices are imputed using the average price movement of remaining establishments within the same geographic stratum (overall mean or targeted mean imputation method).

Estimation

Weights

The weights used for the TASPI estimation come from the Statistics Canada Annual Survey of Services Industries - Accommodation Services (survey number 2418) for the year 2013. The weights are calculated at the geographical stratum level.

Indexes

Estimates are produced by calculating a weighted average of price relatives, which are chained together to form an index series. The TASPI is a Laspeyres chain linked index.

The commonly used unweighted geometric mean formula is the formula used to calculate average price changes at the lowest aggregation level.

Quality evaluation

The quality of this index is maintained through the expertise of trained analysts who have a thorough knowledge of the domain. Much time and effort is devoted to detecting and following up on unusual fluctuations over time in the pricing patterns of goods and services. Prior to dissemination, the price indexes are analyzed and historic trends are reviewed.

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.

Collected data are converted to price indexes and data are released as such, so that it is not possible to identify the suppliers of raw prices.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

The index is not subject to revision and not seasonally adjusted.

Data accuracy

The statistical accuracy of this index depends on the reliability of price and weight data. Price data are obtained from a sample survey, while the weight data are obtained from the Statistics Canada Annual Survey on Services Industries: Accommodation Services. Both inputs of data are subject therefore to their own errors. For the quality of the price data, there is little imputation and editing required. Consequently, the aggregate indices at all levels are considered to be statistically reliable.

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