| Information about the International Visitors Survey |
Availability
| Valid From: .. | 09/30/1986 |
| To: .. | Ongoing |
| Frequency: .. | Quarterly |
Design
Purpose: The objective of the International Visitors Survey is to provide the New Zealand Tourism Board (trading as Tourism New Zealand) and related industries with regular, timely, comprehensive and accurate information on the characteristics, behaviour and expenditure of overseas visitors to New Zealand.
Questions in the International Visitor Survey are used to determine the Travel Credits (Total visitor expenditure) component in the Balance of Payments.
General Information ..International Visitors Survey
Survey Ownership
The International Visitors Survey is commissioned by the Ministry of Tourism. It has been designed and run on their behalf since 2003 by the market research company ACNielsen Limited. From 1997 to 2003 it was run by CM Research / NFO New Zealand Limited. Users of the survey include Tourism New Zealand, the tourism industry, and Statistics New Zealand. Statistics New Zealand purchases expenditure data from the survey for use in the Balance of Payments Travel Credits account, and supplies the Ministry of Tourism with the Customs migration data used in the sample design and the weighting.
Target Population
The target population for the International Visitors Survey is all departing overseas visitors who have been in New Zealand for less than 12 months. Diplomats, their dependants, members of the military forces, and aircrew on duty are excluded because they are still considered residents of their respective countries.
Survey Population
For practicality and cost reasons the population actually surveyed is restricted to those visitors aged 15 and over who depart from one of the three main international airports (Auckland, Christchurch, and Wellington) on non-charter flights. Visitors who depart from secondary airports (for example on flights to Australia from Palmerston North or Queenstown), by sea (on visiting yachts or cruise ships ), or by charter flight from one of the three main airports flights are not surveyed. These visitors are, however, included in the weights when producing the population estimates.
Sample Size
Five thousand completed interviews are required per annum.
Sample Design
Since the beginning of 2003 the IVS has used a "flight-based" methodology. In technical terms this is a stratified cluster sample of departing visitors with non-random (quota) sampling of the individual respondents. The strata are based on the survey quarter, airport, and the overseas destination of the flight. Within each flight strata each individual flight constitutes a cluster of visitors. A sample of flights is chosen, and a maximum of three individual passengers per flight are selected by the interviewers in order to fill pre-specified quotas based on the visitor's sex and country of residence.
Selection of Flights
Within each flight strata, a sample of flights is selected. The number of flights selected per strata is determined using a complicated linear optimization process designed to achieve a minimum sample size for a set of key countries of interest to Tourism New Zealand, taking into account the expected mix of countries of residence of the visitors on the flights in the strata, as determined using Customs migration data from the previous year. Practical considerations of interviewer scheduling and workloads are also taken into account when selecting the sample flights.
Quota Allocation
Within each flight stratum a set of quotas is determined specifying the required make-up of the sample. These quotas are set by month, sex, and country of residence, based on passenger information for visitors from the previous year.
Selection of Sample Visitors
Visitors are approached by interviewers in the airport departure lounges for the selected flight, in order to achieve the specified quotas of visitors by country of residence and sex. Quotas for each survey month apply to the flight stratum as a whole: interviewers have flexibility over the particular interviews achieved on a particular sampled flight so long as they meet their required quotas over the month as a whole.
It should be noted that the quota sampling methodology means that strictly speaking the sample is not a true probability sample.
For airport management reasons, no interviewing is conducted in the business lounges. This is currently under review.
Questionnaires
Data is captured using CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviews). A hard copy of the questionnaire is available but distribution is subject to the approval of the Ministry of Tourism.
Interviewers fluent in the major foreign languages are rostered on for flights where visitors speaking those languages are expected. Questionnaires in the major foreign languages are also available for respondents to study during the face-to-face interview.
Information Collected
For each interviewed visitor a range of information is collected, including length of stay, purpose of visit, type of accommodation used, types of transport used, places visited, activities undertaken, attractions visited, and total expenditure for the visit. Statistics New Zealand's main interest is in the expenditure information.
Weighting
A two-stage weighting process is applied. In both stages the survey data is weighted up to reflect the total number of departing visitors for the quarter, as obtained from Customs migration data.
In the first stage of weighting, the data is weighted up to population totals within weighting cells formed by flight strata x country of residence. This stage of weighting accounts for the disproportional probabilities of selection arising from the stratified sample design and the specified country of residence quotas. In the second stage of weighting the weighted estimates from the first stage of weighting are weighted up to population totals within weighting cells formed by country of residence x five-year age group x sex. Within each country of residence and sex the five-year weighting cells are collapsed together to ensure a minimum sample size of 5 visitors for each weighting cell. Technically this weighting is known as post-stratification, and it adjusts the survey estimates to allow for imbalances in the age-sex structure of the sample compared to the population of all visitors.
Comparisons with the Previous Methodology
The current survey methodology came into place in the first quarter of 2003. Prior to that the survey had a different design. A random sample of days was selected at each airport, and a systematic random sample of visitors was selected as they passed down the corridor to the departure lounges, with every 18th visitor being selected. The sample was then weighted by country of residence totals from the Customs migration data.
The previous design was more strictly random than the current design since it did not include quota sampling. However it did not allow control over the sample size for different countries of origin in the same manner as the current design, and a key requirement of the Ministry of Tourism was to be able to produce estimates by country of origin. In addition, managerial changes at Auckland airport, the largest of the three main airports, meant that the previous sampling methodology could not have continued there.
A hard copy of the questionnaire is available but distribution is subject to the approval of Tourism New Zealand.
Output Variables
Output variables are pieces of individual information that can be extracted from the survey/output data. Often output variables can be cross tabulated with other output variables, for example sales by industry classification. The list below contains all current and past output variables which have been released for this survey/output.
| Variable Name | Description |
 | |
| Travel | Revenue from overseas visitors to New Zealand |
Changes in Output Variables over time
Guide to Interpreting Data
Summary of Changes to Survey/Output ..Data on the expenditure of overseas visitors in New Zealand have been derived from an International Visitors Survey (IVS), conducted by Tourism New Zealand. The IVS commenced with the September 1986 quarter and ran until the March 1991 quarter. The IVS was then temporarily discontinued for six quarters and then ran from the December 1992 quarter to the September 1993 quarter. It recommenced in early 1995 and is now an ongoing survey. Results from the new survey have been incorporated in travel credits from the June 1995 quarter onwards. The new survey includes estimates for the value of the New Zealand part of multi country packages, and the statistics incorporate estimates of this type of expenditure from the June 1991 quarter inclusive.
Quarterly estimates for periods during which the IVS was temporarily discontinued are based on previous quarterly IVS survey data and the migration data on numbers of short term visitors to New Zealand.
Prior to the availability of the IVS survey data, the data source used was the Reserve Bank's monthly Overseas Exchange Transactions (OET) record.
From the June 1999 quarter BOP statistics are reported on a BPM5 basis. This has meant changes to the way that the Travel Credits series is calculated. Previously the IVS total was published as the travel credits series with no breakdown. Under BPM5 Travel is separated into Business and Personal. The Personal component is then broken down again into Education, Health and Other.
Overseas visitors business expenditure is estimated from the IVS.
Personal expenditure is derived from IVS data (minus the expenditure of people reporting education as their reason of visit to New Zealand), an estimate of the expenditure of international students studying in New Zealand and estimates of health expenditure by overseas visitors.
Usage and Limitations of the Data ..Statistics New Zealand does not publish New Zealand's revenue from international visitors (travel credits) broken down into revenue from individual countries. Travel credits are only released as an aggregate in the Balance of Payments statistics.
The IVS data from remains in part and in whole the property of The Ministry of Tourism. IVS data is made available by The Ministry of Tourism at www.tourism.govt.nz.
Related Data Sources ..Migration data
Sampling Errors ..No sampling errors are calculated for the survey on an on-going basis, and no ad-hoc sampling errors have been calculated for the new design that came into effect at the beginning of 2003. When ad-hoc sampling errors were calculated for the previous design the error for estimated total annual visitor expenditure was found to be approximately plus or minus 4 percent. The formal sampling error for total annual visitor expenditure under the new design is probably of a similar magnitude. It should be noted, however, that possible non-sampling errors mean that the true level of possible error in the estimates may be larger than a formal calculation of sampling error would suggest.
Non-sampling errors Non-sampling error in the survey estimates may arise from a number of sources, including possible bias in the sample selection, non-response bias, processing errors, and errors arising from the non-response imputation and apportioning procedures used to estimate the New Zealand component of multi-country packages and international airfares. While every attempt is made to keep such possible errors and biases to a minimum, they cannot be eliminated entirely. The size of the possible non-sampling error is not quantifiable.
Caveats on Release ..
Catalogue & Reference Numbers
Other Comments
Classification(s) used
Glossary of Terms
| Term | Description |
| Overseas visitor | A person staying for less than one year in an economy (i.e. New Zealand) of which he is not a resident, for any purpose other than a) being stationed on a military base or with another government agency of his own government, b) accompanying a person mentioned under a) as a dependent, or c) undertaking a productive activity directly for an entity which is a resident of that economy. |
| Total Travel Expenditure | Covers the goods and services acquired by overseas visitors from the New Zealand economy, that have been spent on the visitor personally (including gifts), and not on any other members of their party. The expenditure excludes international airfares which is collected by the International Transportation survey for inclusion in the Balance of Payments Statistics. |
Contact Details
Liability
Statistics New Zealand gives no warranty that the information or data supplied contains no errors. However, all care and diligence has been used in processing, analysing and extracting the information. Statistics New Zealand shall not be liable for any loss or damage suffered by the customer consequent upon the use directly, or indirectly, of the information supplied in this product.