Traveller Accommodation Services Price Index (TASPI)

Detailed information for Fourth quarter 2009

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 produce, on a quarterly basis, monthly price indexes.

Data release - January 26, 2010

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 rooms for an overnight or short stay without any meals or other services provided. The index reflects changes in room rates excluding all indirect taxes and covers hotel and motel lodging services.

The TASPI provides a useful indicator of the economic activity in the traveller accommodation industry, and the tourism sector in general. The series can also be used as a measure of one important cost component of business travel. In addition, the TASPI is used by the Canadian System of National Accounts for the estimation of the real value of gross output of this 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 2000/12.

Collection period: For the TASPI, the collection process occurs during the third week of the month.

Subjects

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

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 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 as part of the Consumer Price Index program, where regional interviewers obtain the necessary information from respondents through visits or by phone. Commodity specialists in Prices Division selected the types of traveller accommodation services for which prices are collected.

Sampling

This is a sample survey with a longitudinal design.

The sample for the traveller accommodation index is selected from the Annual Survey of Traveller Accommodation (survey number 2418) and includes establishments in Hotels and Motels (North American Industry Classification System or NAICS code 72111) and Casino Hotels (NAICS 72112) whose annual sales from accommodation services exceeded a certain threshold. The current sample consists of 550 establishments, and is allocated by tourist regions across Canada in such a way as to ensure good quality estimates for all provinces and territories. Within each tourist region, the largest establishments were selected into the sample with a probability of 100%. The probability of selection for the remaining establishments was proportional to the total room revenue of the establishment in their tourist region.

Data sources

Responding to this survey is mandatory.

Data are collected directly from survey respondents.

The data are collected as part of the Consumer Price Index program, where regional interviewers obtain the necessary information from respondents through visits or by phone. Interviewers visit most respondents when they are first selected into the survey sample. The purpose of the visit is to select two rooms deemed to be representative of the typical rooms rented during the month. In fact, these two rooms are meant to best represent a double-occupancy room for leisure clients, and a single-occupancy room for business clients. After the initial visit, room rate information is collected from each respondent by telephone.

All attempts are made to keep the specifications (i.e. type of rates and conditions) constant, so that only changes in prices are tracked.The interviewers request information regarding the reasons for price changes and details pertaining to non-standard items included in the current price of the room (e.g., meals) that would not have been covered in the price quoted for the previous month. This information is used to adjust room rates so that they always reflect prices for the same services over time.

Currently, data are not collected for government and foreign clients. Instead, government rates are imputed from business rates, while the price movement for rooms booked by foreign clients is imputed from the business and leisure rates.

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 for the TASPI come from the Statistics Canada Annual Survey of Traveller Accommodation (survey number 2418) for the year 1998. These weights are calculated at the establishment level.

Prices

Prices collected are for room rates excluding all indirect taxes. For the business group, the weekday rate for the third Wednesday of the month, booked three weeks in advance is surveyed. For the leisure group, the applicable rate is the weekend rate for the third weekend of the month, booked three weeks in advance.

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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