Tourism data and indicators

The Tourism data page shows how your destination is doing in tourism: how many tourists arrived, how many nights they spent with you, how many came for a single day only and how much money they left in the destination. Unlike the figures from social networks, this is not data from your own profiles. It is public statistics published by the Czech Statistical Office (CZSO), the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic (MF ČR) and the CzechTourism agency. gas collects it in one place, derives further indicators from it and shows them over time.

Before you start

• The customer account must have the tourism module switched on. Without it, the section does not appear in the left menu at all. To have it switched on, write through the contact form.
• The customer account must have a region, destination management company or municipality assigned. The assignment is done by Good Agency and is described in detail in the article Destination management setup.

Where to find the indicators

gas remembers the indicator, the destination and the period you chose. The next time you return to the page, you will find it set the same way. The setting is remembered separately for each customer account, so after you switch accounts a different destination and a different indicator may be shown.

Abbreviations that keep coming up in indicator names

• CAE stands for collective accommodation establishments, that is hotels, guesthouses, campsites and similar businesses. Their statistics are collected and processed by the CZSO.
• IAE stands for individual accommodation establishments, that is staying with friends, with family or through Airbnb. Nobody has to report this kind of accommodation, so its numbers are estimated from surveys.
• A tourist is a visitor who spends at least one night in the destination. A day-tripper arrives and leaves on the same day, without staying overnight. Together they make up visitors.

What each indicator means

The list of indicators is sorted alphabetically. Most of them have a small question mark icon to the right of the name. When you hover over it, gas shows a short explanation right in the list, so you do not have to remember what the indicator means.

Accommodation and its capacity (CZSO statistics)

This group comes from the reports that collective accommodation establishments submit to the Czech Statistical Office.

• Tourists CAE is the number of tourists who stayed overnight in collective accommodation establishments. It is given in people.
• Tourist overnight stays CAE is the number of nights those tourists spent in accommodation altogether. One tourist who stayed three nights is counted three times in this indicator.
• Average overnight stays CAE is the average number of nights per tourist. It is given to two decimal places.
• Number of CAE is the number of collective accommodation establishments in the given locality.
• Number of beds is the accommodation capacity in beds.
• Number of rooms is the accommodation capacity in rooms.
• Number of tent pitches is the capacity of campsites.

Estimates from CzechTourism surveys

This group is not collected by the CZSO. It is produced by recalculating the accommodation statistics using shares that the CzechTourism agency finds out by surveying visitors. The shares are established for the whole region, so even a result for a smaller area is derived from regional proportions.

• Tourists IAE is the estimated number of tourists who stayed overnight in individual accommodation establishments, that is outside hotels and guesthouses.
• Day-trippers is the estimated number of visitors who came for a single day only, without staying overnight.
• Total visitors is the sum of tourists from collective accommodation establishments, tourists from individual accommodation establishments and day-trippers.
• Average length of stay is the average number of days a tourist spends in the destination. It is calculated as the average number of overnight stays plus one day, because someone who stays one night is in the destination for two days.
• Average tourist spend is the average amount in Czech crowns spent by one tourist. The value comes directly from the CzechTourism surveys.
• Average day-tripper spend is the same for a visitor who does not stay overnight.
• Tourism revenue is the total amount in Czech crowns that visitors spend in the destination. It is calculated from the numbers of tourists and day-trippers, from the length of their stay and from the average spend.

Fee, population and area

• Stay fee is the total amount in Czech crowns that municipalities collected as the stay fee, a local tax collected by municipalities. It is taken from the municipal budget statements published by the Ministry of Finance, both annually and quarterly. For a larger area, the fees of individual municipalities are added up. The quarterly value is the amount the municipalities actually collected in that quarter; accommodation providers pay the fee in arrears, often once a quarter or once a year, so the quarterly amounts do not have to follow the season and the first quarter tends to be higher than the summer ones.
• Population is the number of permanent residents according to the CZSO. It mainly serves as a basis for comparison, showing how many visitors there are per resident.
• Area is the size of the territory in square kilometres according to the CZSO.

At which level the data is available

Next to the indicator selection there is a level switch with three options: Region, Destination management and Municipality. It is followed by the selection of a specific destination, in which you can search.

Which levels are offered depends on what the customer account has assigned:

• An account assigned to a region sees all three levels: the region, the destination management companies in it and the individual municipalities.
• An account assigned to a destination management company sees the Destination management level and the Municipality level.
• An account assigned to a municipality sees only the Municipality level.

The level switch appears only when at least two levels are available. Likewise, the destination selection appears only when there is more than one item to choose from at the given level. So if you see no switch in the header, it means the customer account has a single destination assigned.

The list of indicators changes with the level. This is not a fault, it is related to the way the individual sources collect their statistics:

• At the Region level all indicators are available.
• At the Destination management level, Average tourist spend and Average day-tripper spend are missing. These two amounts are tracked for the whole region only.
• At the Municipality level only the CZSO indicators and the stay fee remain. Estimates from surveys (Tourists IAE, Day-trippers, Total visitors, Average length of stay, Tourism revenue) are not calculated for individual municipalities, because the survey is carried out for regions.

Period and its granularity

Tourism statistics are published for whole calendar years and, for part of the territories, also for quarters. They cannot be shown by month or by day, and you cannot choose a custom range as you are used to with social networks.

After the destination selection there is a year selector and a Year / Quarter switch:

• In the Year view the graph and the table show the last eleven or so completed years straight away and the year selector has no effect. The current year is not shown, because there are no annual statistics for it yet.
• In the Quarter view the graph and the table show the four quarters of the year chosen in the year selector, and the comparison is always against the same quarter of the previous year. The year selector here reaches up to the current year, because the completed quarters of this year already have data; a quarter the CZSO has not published yet has an empty row in the table. A single quarter is not selected on this page, that is what the Report and Destination comparison pages do.

The CZSO publishes quarterly data for regions, destination management organisations and the 13 regional capitals. For other municipalities the switch stays, because every municipality has quarterly stay fee data; the CZSO indicators (Tourists CAE, Tourist overnight stays CAE, Average overnight stays CAE) are labelled "no quarterly data" for them in the quarterly view, cannot be selected, and on the Report and Destination comparison pages they show a dash with the hint "Quarterly data are available for regions, destination management organisations and regional capitals."

A quarterly source exists for the indicators about tourists and overnight stays (Tourists CAE, Tourist overnight stays CAE, Average overnight stays CAE), for the indicators calculated from them (Tourists IAE, Day-trippers, Total visitors, Average length of stay, Tourism revenue) and for the Stay fee, which comes from the quarterly municipal statements. Area, Population, both average spends and the capacities (Number of CAE, Number of beds, Number of rooms, Number of tent pitches) are annual only: on this page they are labelled "yearly only" in the indicator list in the quarterly view and cannot be selected, and on the Report and Destination comparison pages they show a dash with the hint "Available in the yearly view only." Similarly, the indicators based on the CzechTourism survey (Tourists IAE, Day-trippers, Total visitors, Tourism revenue, average spends) are labelled "no survey" when the survey for the selected year has not been released yet.

The year and quarter selection is shared by the Data, Report and Destination comparison pages and by the destination management organisation detail. A period chosen on one of them applies to the others as well.

How to read the graph and the table

The graph shows the development of the selected indicator by year, or by quarter in the quarterly view. It is controlled as follows:

• The button in the page header switches the graph type: Columns, Line, Area or Bars. The choice is saved to your user account and is used on other pages of gas as well.
• The Export button above the graph downloads an image (PNG, JPG, SVG), a PDF, or the data in CSV or XLS. Export is not offered on a phone.
• The button with the arrows pointing into the corners lets you enter fullscreen with the graph.
• The refresh button in the page header loads the figures again.

The table below the graph has Year as its first column and the values of the indicator next to it. In the quarterly view the first column is called Period and the table has four rows, Q1 to Q4 of the selected year. Each value also has two comparison columns: Year-on-year difference (by how much the figure changed against the previous year, or for a quarter against the same quarter of the previous year) and Year-on-year difference in percent (by how many percent). Growth is green, a decline is red. For indicators that distinguish domestic and foreign visitors, the columns are repeated in groups labelled "(domestic)" and "(international)".

How this data differs from figures from social networks

This is the most important difference, and it is worth remembering. Figures from social networks and from ad accounts measure real events and gas downloads them several times a day. Tourism data is produced differently: part of it is collected from accommodation providers reporting to the authorities, part from surveying visitors in the field. Several things follow from that:

• The delay is in months, not hours. Data for the past year is typically published in the spring of the following year, and quarterly data is published by the CZSO roughly five weeks after the end of the quarter. gas keeps checking whether new data is available (roughly once a month) and as soon as a new year or a new quarter is released, it adds it by itself. Until then, the last year is missing from the graph and the last quarter has an empty row in the table.
• Estimates are estimates. Indicators derived from the survey (tourists in individual accommodation, day-trippers, spend, revenue) are not counted people, but a recalculation based on shares found on a sample. They are suitable for following a trend and for comparing destinations, not as exact records.
• Source data can change retroactively. The survey provider itself adjusts its values over time, so an older year may come out differently today than it looked in your last year's report from the same source.

Explanatory notes in the application

gas also has a brief explanation of the abbreviations and terms right in the interface. You will find it in the Explanatory notes block at the very bottom of the Tourism data → Report page. It explains the abbreviations CAE and IAE, the difference between a tourist and a day-tripper, states which indicators are based on CzechTourism surveys, links to the source and points out that the survey values change over time.

A short help text for a specific indicator is also available under the question mark icon in the indicator list and next to the graph heading.

Common problems

The graph and the table are empty even though an indicator is selected

gas has no figures for the given combination of indicator and destination. Most often it is an indicator that is not tracked at the selected level, or a municipality for which nobody reports that particular figure. Try switching to a higher level (Destination management or Region) and check whether the figures appear there.

An indicator I saw last time is missing from the list

The list changes with the selected level. After you switch to Municipality, all indicators derived from surveys disappear; after you switch to Destination management, both average spend indicators disappear. Switch the level back to Region and the indicator will return.

The most recent year is missing from the graph

Statistics for the past year are released only in the spring. Until then the graph ends with the previous year. There is nothing to set up: as soon as the source publishes the data, gas adds it by itself.

The last quarter has an empty row in the table

The CZSO publishes a quarter roughly five weeks after its end and gas downloads new data once a month. The table in the quarterly view always has four rows, so the row of a quarter that has not been published yet stays empty until the data arrives.

Instead of the graph there is a notice that the metric is not available in the quarterly view

The selected indicator is kept on an annual basis only. This applies to the area, the population, the average spends and the capacities (number of CAE, beds, rooms and tent pitches). You get into this state by switching the period, because in the indicator list the annual indicators are labelled "yearly only" in the quarterly view and cannot be selected. Click Show yearly in the notice, or select a different indicator.

Instead of the graph there is a notice that the metric has no data for the selected year

The indicators based on the CzechTourism survey (Tourists IAE, Day-trippers, Total visitors, Tourism revenue, average spends) exist only for the years the survey has been released for. For a newer year they are labelled "no survey" in the list. Click Show followed by the year in the notice, which switches to the last year with a survey, or select a different indicator.

For a municipality the CZSO indicators are labelled "no quarterly data" in the quarterly view

The CZSO publishes quarterly data only for regions, destination management organisations and the 13 regional capitals. For other municipalities the quarterly view offers the stay fee; the CZSO indicators are kept annually for them, and if one of them is selected, the page shows a notice with the Show yearly button instead of the chart. Select the stay fee, or switch the period to Year.

I only have data for the region, but I need it for our municipality

Indicators calculated from surveys (day-trippers, spend, tourism revenue) are collected for the whole region and are not broken down to individual municipalities. For a municipality, the CZSO figures remain available (tourists and overnight stays in collective accommodation establishments, capacities, population, area) together with the stay fee. gas does not show areas smaller than a municipality.

The level switch is not shown at all

The customer account has a single level assigned, typically just one municipality or one destination management company. Widening the scope is handled by Good Agency, write through the contact form.

I cannot see the municipality I am looking for in the destination selection

The selection contains only municipalities that fall under the destination assigned to your customer account. If a municipality that belongs to you is missing, it is a matter of the assignment settings. Write through the contact form.

The figures do not match what we have from another source

Go through the three most common causes:

If none of these options explains the difference, write to us through the contact form and state the destination, the year, the indicator and the value you are comparing against.

The comparison columns are empty for the first year

The year-on-year difference is calculated against the previous year, or in the quarterly view against the same quarter of the previous year. For the oldest year shown there is nothing to compare with, so it stays empty. The same happens for a year that follows a year with a zero value.

The total value is missing for average spend

Average tourist spend and average day-tripper spend exist only separately for domestic and for foreign visitors. A combined value for both groups is not calculated, because the survey does not establish it that way. You will find both figures in the table in the groups labelled "(domestic)" and "(international)".

The stay fee is zero or missing

The figure is taken from the municipal budget statements published by the Ministry of Finance. If a municipality does not collect the stay fee or did not report it in the statement for that year, the value is zero. For a larger area, only municipalities for which the figure exists are added up. In the quarterly view the value can also be missing because the Ministry of Finance has not published the quarterly statement yet: statements come out roughly a month after the end of the quarter and gas downloads them once a month.

After switching the customer account, a different destination is shown

gas remembers the level, destination and indicator separately for each customer account. After you switch accounts, it therefore sets what you last selected on the new account. Just choose what you need in the header.

The graph is simplified on a phone

On a small screen gas deliberately simplifies the graph so that it stays readable, and it points this out in the text below the graph. You will see the full version, including export, on a computer or a tablet.

The Tourism data section is not in the menu at all

The customer account does not have the tourism module switched on, or you are switched to a different customer account than you expected. Check in the switch at the top of the screen which account you are on. If the account is correct and the section is missing, ask for the module to be switched on through the contact form.