INEbase / Travel Agencies Survey 1997 / Methodology
Introduction
Background
Objectives
Scope
Statistical unit
Concepts and definitions
Sampling design
Information collection
Analysis of the results
Introduction
This publication presents the results of the Travel Agencies Survey corresponding to 1997, using tables and graphs. The main objective is to provide an overview of the most relevant aspects of the activity carried out by travel agencies, as well as the companies that carry out this activity.
Firstly, information is offered on a national level in accordance with the following classifications:
- Companies' legal system.
- Occupation brackets.
- Amount of turnover.
Secondly, information is offered on the main variables by Autonomous Community.
In 1993, the National Statistics Institute carried out the Travel Agencies Pilot Survey for the first time with the aim of providing structural information on the sector, which could serve as a reference point for measuring the developments occurring in this sector.
The Travel Agencies Survey 1997 forms part of a series of surveys on the services sector. These surveys are carried out by the INE in order to obtain structural information on this sector with the aim of covering the information requests demanded by various users, both national and international.
The survey collects information on the structure and make-up of companies: activity, legal status, material resources available for undertaking their activity.
Moreover, the survey obtains information on the socio-economic characteristics of the staff employed, both paid and unpaid, who work in the companies, as well as the purchasing and expenditure structure and operating costs.
Information is also collected on other economic variables, such as taxes, capital transactions, financial expenditure, income, exports and imports.
The survey scope is defined relating to the population researched, time, and space.
Population scope
The population under study is made up of companies whose main or only activity is included in Section 1, division 63.3 Activities of travel agencies and tour operators; tourist assistance activities n.e.c.
63.301 Tour operators.
63.302 Travel agencies.
This subclass includes:
- Arranging of made-to-measure tours, accommodation and transportation for travellers and tourists.
- Furnishing of tickets, sale of packaged tours, ...
63.303 Other tourist assistance activities n.e.c.
Includes:
- Activities of local tourist information offices and accommodation offices.
Time scope
The survey's reference period is the 1997 financial year, except for the number of establishments and staff employed variables, which take the 30 September as the reference date.
Geographical scope
The survey covers all companies located in the Spanish peninsular, the Baleares and Canarias and Ceuta and Melilla that carry out any of the aforementioned activities in the population scope within this territory or for other countries.
The statistical unit or research unit is the company whose main economic activity is one of those included in the population scope.
The company corresponds to the smallest organisation of legal units that makes up an organisation unit that produces goods and services and which has certain decision-making autonomy, mainly in terms of using the current resources available. The company carries out one or more activities in one or more places. A company can correspond to one single legal unit.
In this survey, the statistical unit coincides with the informant unit and this will be the company working as a travel agency.
Economic activity
Economic activity is the result of a combination of resources that lead to the creation of specific goods or the provision of specific services that can be quantified monetarily.
The economic activity will be the activity that generates the greatest added value. However, given the difficulty in implementing this criteria, the production with greatest turnover or the employment of the greatest number of people are currently used as alternative criteria.
These statistics consider the company's main activity to be that which generates the greatest volume of income.
It is necessary to remember that the survey's population scope is focused on those companies whose main activity is Activities of travel agencies and tour operators; tourist assistance activities n.e.c; according to the NACE 93, these classifications can be broken down in the following way:
63.301 Tour operators.
63.302 Travel agencies.
63.303 Other tourist assistance activities n.e.c.
Legal status
This is the legal status under which the company operates. The following categories are considered:
Individual or individual company: a company worked by an individual or by a number of people in common without there being a legal document that formalises the company or group.
Legal entity: a company incorporated as a corporation, association, foundation or company in general to whom the law grants the ability to exercise rights and to take on obligations and which is registered in the Registry of Commerce.
The following types are set out within this category:
- Private Limited Company
- Other: General partnerships, limited partnerships, joint ownership, cooperatives, economic interest association, ...
Material resources
Establishnebts: An establishment is considered to be the whole area that is structurally separated or independent, which is not used exclusively as a family dwelling and in which economic activities dependent on a company are carried out or can be carried out.
Information is collected on the number of premises the company uses in order to carry out its activity located in national territory, in other European Union countries and in the rest of the world.
Staff employed
Staff employed are considered to be the number of people who contribute, via their work, to the company's productive activity.
People who carry out repair or maintenance work for another company are not included in staff employed, nor those who are on an extended leave of absence or limited leave, those who are retired or undertaking military service or the alternative social service.
Staff employed by categories and work system
Staff employed in accordance with their category and work system are classified under:
- Paid:those people employed by the company who have a contract and are paid with fixed or periodical amounts, even if they receive commission as well, are considered to be paid.
Staff employed in accordance with the company's functions are classified under:
- Engineers and graduates
- Technical engineers, experts and qualified assistants
- Administrative staff
- Other staff
Staff employed according to working day
Staff are classified in accordance with the working day they undertake:
- Part time staff: this includes paid staff who work less than 80 percent of the company's normal working day.
All information on staff is broken down by sex.
Hours worked
These are the number of hours effectively carried out during 1997 by the total number of staff in the company working either full or part time.
It includes normal hours and overtime, short breaks in the work place, work during bank holidays and nights,...
It excludes hours paid but not really worked, such as holidays, bank holidays, sick leave, lunch breaks and travel time from home to work.
Staff supplied by employment agencies
Information is collected on staff supplied by employment agencies for each of the quarters and on the total number of hours worked during the year by these people.
- Number of hours worked
Other staff
This includes staff who undertake work in the company via a non-work contract.
When the company belongs to a group.
A company group unites a number of companies that are legally and financially linked.
The group of companies can involve a number of decision-making sources, mainly in terms of policies on production, sales and profits,... and can standardise certain aspects of financial management and the tax system. It consists of an economic unit, which can make choices that particularly affect the associated units making up the unit.
The group of companies is under the influence of the group head: this is a legal parent company that is not controlled, either directly or indirectly, by any other legal unit.
Information on whether the group is national or international is requested.
Share in capital
Information is requested on the number of company shares in Spanish and foreign companies. If the company is held by others, the nationality and the public or private nature of these other companies is requested.
The holding is controlling when it exceeds 50 percent of the share capital.
Income and subsidies
This includes the amounts received in consideration of services provided during the reference period without including paid, deductible VAT and other deductible taxes on products similar to VAT; subsidies received from the Public Administration are also included. Income has been broken down in accordance with the productive activity undertaken by the company.
Amount of turnover
Information on the net amount of turnover is collected and classified in accordance with the different services carried out.
Other income and subsidies
- Operating subsidies: amounts received from the Public Administration with the aim of ensuring the company minimum profitability or for compensating operating deficits.
- Other management income.
Other income
This corresponds to amounts received for:
- Extraordinary income.
Changes to stocks of finished products and those in progress
The balance resulting from the difference between final and initial stock of the company's different products.
Purchases and expenditure
Purchases represent the value of goods and services, different from investment goods, acquired during the reference period and destined for resale or the ongoing running of the company.
Purchases and expenditure that may originate in the development of the business activity are included. They are classified and defined according to the General Accounting Plan Regulation.
Purchases and expenditure made by the company, excluding VAT, are collected.
Purchases
The value of merchandise and other goods acquired by the company for resale is collected, whether their form or substance is changed or not, or prior to being subject to industrial change, transformation or construction processes that form part of the company's productive activity during the reference year. Also included is all expenditure from the year including the acquisition of services, consumable materials and extraordinary losses.
This includes:
- Net purchase of raw materials and other provisions.
- Work undertaken by other companies Subcontracting.
External services expedinture
External services expenditure includes expenditure incurred by the company for various services acquired by the company in order to undertake its productive process, received from third parties and differentiating between:
- Leasing and royalties: expenditure incurred for the renting of real or personal property in use or available to the company.
- Repairs and maintenance on the goods held by the company.
- Independent professional services: this is an amount that is paid to professionals for services provided to the company, such as fees for economists, lawyers, auditors, notaries,... as well as commissions for independent mediators.
- Transport
- Non-corporate insurance premiums: amounts paid for insurance premiums (on vehicles, merchandise, premises, buildings,...) except those that refer to the company's staff.
- Bank services and similar.
- Advertising, propaganda and public relations: amounts paid for advertising, propaganda and public relations.
- Supplies: amount of expenditure paid for electricity, water, telephone and any other supply that is not storable.
- Other external services expenditure: expenditure not included in the previous sections, such as staff travel expenditure including transport and office expenditure not previously included.
Paid staff expedinture
This includes all payments made by the company with which to pay the work of employed staff however they are paid during the reference period. These are broken down into:
- Compensation: Amounts paid to company staff to compensate for damages, specifically compensations for dismissal or early retirement.
- Social Security contributions paid for by the company: included in this section are payments made by the company to Social Security bodies for the various contributions made to their paid staff.
- Contributions to the complementary pension system.
- Other corporate costs: this includes contributions to complementary pension systems or other similar systems that cover situations such as retirement, disability or death in relation to the company's staff; other corporate expenditure incurred in order to comply with a legal regulation or incurred voluntarily by the company, such as company store and canteen subsidies, the maintenance of vocational training schools and institutions, study grants, life, accident and illness insurance premiums, ...
Unpaid staff costs
- Other corporate costs.
Allocations for depreciation of fixed assets
This section includes allocations made to cover the annual depreciation suffered in the productive process by the different categories of real or personal property (except lands).
- Allocation of intangible assets: amounts used to cover the loss of value of intangible elements, such as administrative concessions, transfer rights and rights to goods under financial leasing, as well as countable tax repayments that the company makes on goods acquired under a leasing system.
Other management expedinture
Distinction is made between:
- Extraordinary expenditure.
Cahnge in stock of goods
- Changes in stock of raw materials and other provisions
Exports
This includes income obtained for services provided to other countries, already included in turnover.
Imports
This includes payments made for those services provided to other countries, already included in purchases and expenditure.
Capital transactions
- Technical facilities.
- IT equipment.
- Other tangible assets, such as: buildings, machinery, transport,...
- Intangible assets:
- New leasing contracts: This includes the leasing of goods included in the company's assets, where the company is able to exercise the option to purchase.
Taxes
Value added tax
- Companies admitted to the general system.: In this case, VAT charged and deductible paid VAT are included. Charged VAT is what companies charge their clients and deductible paid VAT is what the companies pay their suppliers for the purchase of goods and services that can be deducted.
Taxes linked to production
This includes obligatory payments to the public administration that tax the company's productive activity and the use of production factors. Neither corporate tax nor income tax are included.
Survey framework
The Central Companies Directory (CCD) with reference date 1 January 1997 has been used as the survey framework.
The CDD contains information on companies' main economic activity and on the number of employees. This allows stratification by these concepts and provides identification and location data of the informant units for the correct collection of information. Units were chosen from the CDD whose main activity corresponded with division 63.3 of Section I of the NACE 93 Activities of travel agencies and tour operators; tourist assistance activities n.e.c.
Stratification
The population of companies existing in the CDD has been taken, whose activity is included in type 63.30 of the NACE-93 and is stratified according to the number of employees and Autonomous Community.
The company population has been stratified according to the number of employees in the following way:
2.- 1 and 2 employees
3.- 3 to 5 employees
4.- 6 or more employees
La investigación ha sido exhaustiva para las empresas de 6 o más trabajadores.
En la siguiente tabla aparece la población, la muestra, los cuestionarios recogidos e incidencias encontradas por estratos:
Estimators
In order to calculate the raising factors, the eleven strata with the following sizes are taken into account for each of the Autonomous Communities:
The population, which according to the CDD exists in each stratum, was adjusted by taking into account the number of delistings (companies that are temporarily closed or duplicated), detected during the field work.
If we call:
Nh = population according to the CDD in stratum h.
nh = theoretical sample in stratum h.
bh = number of delistings (companies that are temporarily closed or duplicated) from the sample in stratum h.
neh = effective sample in stratum h. Corresponds to the effectively recorded questionnaires.
nth = effective sample plus units detected as delisted during the field work.
Thus, we estimate the population in stratum h by:
and we estimate the total population of variable X by:
where L is the total number of strata and Xhi represents the value taken by variable X in the i-th unit of stratum h.
Field work
The information was collected using a mixed system of post and phone support.
The questionnaires were issued to the informant and were sent to the INE once they had been completed. The questionnaires received were subjected to a first filter prior to being recorded electronically.
Information processing
Whilst the questionnaires were being collected, a first filtering process was carried out. Subsequently, once the questionnaires had been recorded, the data file was subjected to a series of IT controls that allowed for the detection of possible errors, incoherences and inconsistencies that led to further contact with the informant companies in order to correct the possible anomalies in the responses.
The study of the results tables allowed for a final analysis of the data contained in the questionnaires.
Introduction
This section includes a short analysis of the results obtained in the Travel Agencies Survey 1997.
The different tables in this publication contain the main results, which are accompanied by graphs.
This publication presents economic and structural information on the companies' activity during 1997 on a national level and by Autonomous Community.
The results tables include the main variables analysed.
This publication offers sector data: number of companies within the sector, income, expenditure. Information that allows us to understand the sector's importance within the national economy.
Firstly, information is offered on a national level, which is broken down according to the following characteristics:
- Legal status
- Occupation brackets
- Turnover
Secondly, the information is presented on an Autonomous Community level.
Structural analysis
Information on a national level
A. Structure and make-up of the companies
- Tour operators: companies that prepare and organise the aforementioned made to measure tours and trips offered by the tour operators and represent 3 percent.
- Travel agency-tour operators: companies that carry out both the travel agency's and the tour operator's functions and represent 10 percent.
- The remaining 34 percent is dedicated to other activities, such as tourist guides and tourist information offices.
A.2. Make-up of the companies:
From the results it is possible to see that the main or only activity of more than 4,700 companies with 8,978 open premises is that of a travel agency: furnishing of travel information, advice and planning; arranging of made-to-measure tours, accommodation and transportation for travellers and tourists: furnishing of tickets, sale of packaged tours, etc.
When studying the staff employed, we see that 75 percent corresponds to those agencies incorporated as public limited companies, although these only make up a third of the total, generating 85 percent of income. Just 5 percent corresponds to those agencies incorporated as individuals, which constitute another third of the total.
We can also see that this is a sector where more women than men work, as of the 31,400 people employed, 19,000 are women and 12,400 are men. Of the total number, more than half, 55%, belong to the administrative category.
In terms of the number of employees per company, just 1 percent have 50 or more employees, whereas 56 percent have just one employee.
B. Income obtained
These companies obtained income of around one and a half billion pesetas, of which 48 percent corresponds to travel agencies-tour operators and 25 percent to travel agencies and tour operators.
According to legal status, we can see that 86 percent of income corresponds to public limited companies.
According to staff employed, companies with 50 or more employees take 57 percent of income.
Finally, we see that 88 percent of income corresponds to companies whose turnover is equal to or greater than 250 million pesetas.
C. Expenditure generated
In terms of expenditure distribution, staff costs, representing almost 100 million pesetas, exceed the external services expenditure and within this item, we should highlight the advertising entries with 17 percent and independent professional services with 24 percent.
Information by Autonomous community
In accordance with the results, we can see that 25 percent of companies are located in the Comunidad de Madrid, followed by Cataluña with 18 percent and Andalucía with 15 percent.
In terms of income, 40 percent is focused on Madrid, followed by the Baleares with 17 percent.