Contrasting the Uses of TSAs and CGE Models: Measuring Tourism Yield and Productivity

Abstract

Tourism satellite accounts (TSAs) and computable general equilibrium (CGE) models are used increasingly in tourism analysis, though they have distinctly different functions. These are illustrated by means of two examples. The first of these involves developing measures of profitability and productivity of the Australian tourism industry – the national TSA was used to provide the database for this exercise. The second involves measuring the yield of different types of tourists to the tourism industry and the economy as a whole. TSAs provide an appropriate technique to estimate economic yield at the industry level, while the CGE approach is used to estimate the yield to the economy as a whole.