Selected Indicators - Methodological notes

Tourism accommodation establishments

Statistics of accommodation establishments provide information on the activities of accommodation establishments, which are addressed monthly in the CR 1-12 statistical questionnaire.

Reporting units that are addressed on monthly basis in the CR 1-12 statistical questionnaire are all legal persons and natural persons with identification ID - entrepreneurs regardless of the number of employees and their main activity, which are listed in the Register of accommodation establishments managed by Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic and provide a temporary accommodation to visitors (active participants in tourism) in accommodation establishments. Reporting duty is not obligatory for physical persons providing accommodation services called as „zimmer frei“ as they do not have the status of an entrepreneur. The SOSR addresses on regular basis all municipalities in order to obtain information about entrepreneurs/providers of accommodation establishments and the tourism accommodation establishments themselves, to update the register of accommodation establishments.

Tourism accommodation establishments are those which provide temporary accommodation for visitors regularly or occasionally. These include hotels, boatels, motels, inns with accommodation services, tourist hostels, chalet camps, camping sites, other collective accommodations and accommodation in private. Only complete cottage colonies and camping sites are considered as accommodation establishments, but individual chalets, cabins, or tents of providers are not.

As for the purpose of the CR 1-12 statistical questionnaire, visitors of the accommodation establishment do not include domestic and foreign workers employed in Slovakia who use the temporary establishment as a worker hostels, as well as students who use dormitory accommodation for temporary stays and are not active participants in tourism. If the dormitory accommodation also has dedicated capacities for active participants in tourism, these are included in the monthly questionnaire.

The activity of accommodation establishments is strongly influenced by the seasonality, i.e. accommodation establishments provide their capacities in winter, summer season or yearly. Therefore, depending on demand, the occupancy of beds / rooms varies.

Category - specifies the type of accommodation establishment

Class - sets minimum requirements for equipment, level and range of services related to accommodation

Classification of accommodation establishments by category and class in the database DATAcube:

Classification into regions - 6 categories of accommodation establishments

Hotels (motels) *****, ****

Other hotels (motels, boatels) total

Guest houses with accommodation services

Tourist hostels, Holiday dwellings

Accommodation in private

Other not elsewhere specified^*)

Classification into districts - 3 categories of accommodation establishments

Hotels (motels, boatels)

Guest houses with accommodation services

Other not elsewhere specified^**)

^*)In case of classification into 6 categories includes the category “Other not elsewhere specified” - , camping sites (minicamping), camping grounds, apartment house, other (spas, health resorts, recreational business establishments, training center, student dormitories, business guest houses, cottages, etc.).

^**)In case of classification into 3 categories includes the category “Other not elsewhere specified” all establishments except hotels (motels, boatels) and inns with accommodation services.

Bedroom - The visitor's room (cabin) is a lockable accommodation space, which must be able to be ventilated, the living area must be lit by daylight and it must be heated during the heating season. It includes the living area of the room, or the hall and sanitary establishments.

Beds in accommodation establishments of tourism include all beds determined for overnight lodging of visitors including occasional beds. The beds intended for the owner and for staff of the accommodation establishment are excluded.

Places on free area are basic camp units for tents, tent and passenger cars, caravans, and motor caravans multiplied by 4. Four people can be accommodated per one camp unit.

A visitor in tourism accommodation establishment is a person (except staff and owners) using services of temporary accommodation establishment regardless of the country of permanent residence. Children are also included in the number of visitors. The visitor uses accommodation services for holiday, business trips, participation in sport events, training, courses, symposiums, stays in spa and convalescent centres, visits of friends or relatives, participation in church events, etc.. This also includes accommodation of children in out-door schooling and in summer and winter holiday camps for children. Domestic and foreign employees working in Slovakia who use the accommodation establishment temporarily as a hostel are not considered to be visitors. The period of temporary accommodation should not exceed 1 year.

Foreign visitor staying  in an accommodation establishment is a person who visits the country and is not the resident of the country. Children are also included in the number of visitors. A foreign visitor uses accommodation services for holiday, business trips, participation in sport events, training, courses, symposiums, stays in spa and convalescent centres, visits of friends or relatives, participation in church events, etc. Exceptions are the persons who are coming to work, for professional training ( long-term study) or to become a permanent resident of the country. Members of diplomatic corps and the armed forces on duty in the country are also excluded.

Overnight stays of visitors in a tourism accommodation establishment defines the number of overnight stays of visitors in a tourism accommodation establishment for a certain period of time. When reporting the visitors accommodated in accommodation establishments at the end of the month or quarter of the year and remaining there until the following month or the quarter of the year, the visitor is counted only once. The number of overnight stays is calculated according to the actual overnight stay of the visitor in the relevant period.

Basic indicators in DATAcube. database:

Total number of available accommodation establishments – total number of accommodation establishments providing accommodation services to visitors during the reporting period (quarter, half year, year).

Total number of available bedrooms – total number of bedrooms available to visitors, calculated as the sum of the maximum values for each individual accommodation establishment during the reporting period (quarter, half year, year).

Total number of available bed places (including camping grounds) – total number of bed places including camping grounds available to visitors, calculated as the sum of the maximum values for each individual accommodation establishment during the reporting period (quarter, half year, year).

Number of visitors (domestic and foreign) in total – total number of visitors, which used services of accommodation establishments during the reporting period (quarter, half year, year).

Number of nights spent by visitors (domestic and foreign) in total – total number of nights spent by visitors, which used services of accommodation establishments during the reporting period (quarter, half year, year).

Average number of nights spent by visitors (domestic and foreign) - average number of nights spent by visitors in accommodation establishments, calculated as the total number of nights spent by visitors divided by the number of visitors.

Turnover for accommodation services (domestic and foreign visitors)– turnover for nights spent by visitors. Until 2020, turnover for accommodation services were reported including VAT; since 2021, turnover is reported without VAT.

Average price for accommodation services (domestic and foreign visitors) in EUR - the price for accommodation for one visitor per night, calculated as the total turnover of visitors divided by the total number of nights spent by visitors.

Net occupancy rate of permanent bed places (%) - occupancy rate of permanent bed places by visitors during the reporting period, calculated as the percentage share of overnight stays divided by the number of available permanent bed places (quarter, half year, year).

Net occupancy rate of bedrooms (%) - occupancy rate of bedrooms by visitors during the reporting period, calculated as the percentage share of the number of occupied bedroom-days divided by the number of available bedrooms.

Average number of available bedrooms per day – average number of bedrooms available to visitors per one day, calculated as the number of available bedrooms for visitors during the reporting period (quarter, half year, year) divided by the number of calendar days.

Average number of available permanent bed places per day – average number of permanent bed places available to visitors per one day during the reporting period (quarter, half year, year) divided by the number of calendar days.

The SOSR applied the primary and secondary confidentiality rules of these data so that the data did not contain confidential data in the monthly and subsequently also in the quarterly periodicity and also in their time cumulatives and individual tables and in order to ensure the protection of confidential data resulting from the Act on State Statistics No. 540/2001 Coll. Section 2g and Section 30, not only through the number of accommodation establishments, but also with regard to the dominance of the values ​​of accommodation establishments.

SOSR publishes the maximum amount of non-confidential statistical information on accommodation establishments. Aggregated data compiled by applying mathematical-statistical estimation methods are data with lower reliability marked with the "(u)" flag.

Specifics of confidential data protection in statistics of tourism accommodation establishments

The published DATAcube -s provide a wide range of information on the activities of accommodation establishments. Due to the high level of data detail, the confidentiality rules must be addressed. The main difficulty in data publication occurs on the level of municipalities - in more than 60% of municipalities in the Slovak Republic there is no accommodation establishment (based on the Register of Accommodation Establishments of the SOSR), while in most of the remaining there are a maximum of two accommodation establishments. Other critical points are the interconnection of DATAcube -s and their hierarchical structure - a large number of values are found in several DATAcube -s and on several levels. The DATAcube -s compiled in this way bring value added to the users in the form of detailed multi-level information, but on the other hand they increase the demands on confidentiality.

SOSR ensures the statistical data confidentiality in DATAcube -s for the statistics of accommodation establishments in two stages:

• Primary confidentiality rule - values that do not meet the criteria of data confidentiality are marked as confidential:
  • minimum frequency rule - the published value must be the sum of the values of at least three reporting units
  • the p% rule - the published value cannot allow to estimate the value of the reporting unit
• Secondary confidentiality rule – some values that meet the criteria of data confidentiality will be marked as confidential, due to the possibility to calculate the values of confidential data in step 1 by means of totals and subtotals.

The process of primary confidentiality rule concerns the level of municipalities in particular (in a significant extent also the level of districts). However, due to the multi-level interconnection and complexity of the DATAcube. system, the secondary confidential rule is subsequently applied to the other DATAcube -s; this effect among others also affects occupancy data of accommodation establishments in districts of the SR by visitor’s country of origin. Since the individual countries are only sparsely represented in this DATAcube., the process of selecting a suitable secondary confidentiality marked cell is complicated, which causes a higher degree of the total confidentiality marked values in result. It is also possible to observe a situation in the data where the total number of foreign visitors is confidential in the district, but not by visitor´s country of residence. It occurs precisely because of multi-level secondary protection - in the DATAcube. at the municipal level, due to the rare foreign occupancy in individual municipalities of the district, the number of foreign visitors for the whole district is secondary confidential, and this confidential data are subsequently transferred to the DATAcube. of occupancy of accommodation establishment on the level of district and country of origin. In this DATAcube., it is necessary to apply the secondary confidentiality rule of the value for a selected country of origin to ensure transferred confidentiality and thus it is not necessary to apply confidentiality rules to the values for all countries; this only happens in a situation where the total value for the district is confidential.

The time aspect of data confidentiality is also important. Since the cumulative value for a given period is the sum of the values for individual months, the calculation of confidential data could be possible in this regard, and therefore the cumulant for the period containing among others also confidential values have to be marked as confidential. When choosing a suitable secondary confidentiality rule in a given month, SOSR takes into account the time aspect so that the largest possible volume of cumulative data is published.

As for the process of creating the design of DATAcube -s for the statistics of accommodation establishments, several alternatives were tested. The one that maximizes the volume of provided data and minimizes the volume of overall confidentiality was chosen.

Source

All published data are the result of statistical surveys conducted by the SOSR.

Organized tourism

Organized tourism in the SR provides information from the annual survey CR 6-01 (Annual questionnaire on selected services in tourism). It contains the statistical information on inbound trips of foreign visitors to Slovakia (active tourism) and outbound trips of the Slovak citizen’s abroad (passive tourism) by country of destination if the services of tour operators and travel agencies were used for travelling. The reporting duty relates to all tour operators, travel agencies and other suppliers of services in tourism with main activity classified in the code 79 by NACE Rev. 2. listed in trade register, who provide services in the field of tourism by the residence of responding unit. Data are published by tourism forms (inbound, outbound and domestic tourism). Turnover is specified by tourism forms (turnover of inbound, outbound and domestic tourism) and by activities.

Participant in the active tourism is a foreign visitor using services of tourism during travelling in the Slovak Republic and is not the resident of the Slovak Republic. Participant in the active foreign tourism is a person travelling for holiday, business trips, participation in sport events, training, courses, symposiums, stays in spa and convalescent centres, visits of friends or relatives, participation in church events, etc. The exceptions are those people who are coming to work, to prepare themselves for a profession (a long-term study) or to become a resident of the country. Members of diplomatic corps and armed forces on duty in the country are also excluded. The stay of the participant in the active  tourism may not last longer than one year.

Participant in the passive tourism is the Slovak citizen using services of tourism during travelling abroad. Participant in the passive foreign tourism is a person travelling for holiday, business trips, participation in sport events, training, courses, symposiums, stays in spa and convalescent centres, visits of friends or relatives, participation in church events, etc. The exceptions are those people who are coming to work, to prepare themselves for a profession (a long-term study) or to become a resident of the country. Members of diplomatic corps and armed forces on duty in the country are also excluded.  The stay of the participant in the active tourism may not last longer than one year.

Source

All published data are the result of processing in the SOSR. More information can be obtained from publication Organized Tourism of the SR.

Domestic and Outbound tourism

Data on domestic and outbound tourism of residents provide basic information about the participation of residents of the Slovak Republic in tourism. The respondent in the quarterly survey in households in the territory of the Slovak Republic is a member of the household, who is older than 15 years and in the period considered travelled or stayed for personal or business reasons outside his/her usual environment.

Usual environment – the geographical area, within which the person carries out his or her regular life routines (place of permanent residence, temporary residence, workplace, place of work of the respondent)

Domestic tourism - travelling of residents within their domestic country (Slovak Republic), outside of their usual environment.

Outbound tourism - travelling of residents to foreign countries.

Long trip - trip for leisure or recreational purposes outside of usual environment, on which the participant spends at least 4 nights in a row; the holiday trip may not exceed the period of 12 months.

Short trip - trip for leisure or recreational purposes outside of usual environment, on which the participant spends at least 1 night and at most 3 nights in a row.

Business trip - trip for business or professional reasons outside of usual environment, which includes at least 1 overnight stay; the business trip may not exceed the period of 12 months.

Total expenditure - includes package expenditure, expenditure for accommodation, catering or transport services out of package expenditure, the purchase of goods  (goods consumed during travelling and stays, small tourism single purpose consumer durables, presents and souvenirs) and other recreational expenditure (tickets for cultural sporting events, costs for renting sports equipment,, insurance, fees for currency exchange services, etc).

Source

All published data are the result of statistical surveys conducted by the SOSR.