Measure assessment template
Name of the
Economic impacts of international visitors to New Zealand (working title)
measure
Report being
Our land domain report, 2018
assessed for
Proposed type  National Indicator
Framework
Impact
Environmental  Economic impacts
reporting topic
Source
The International Visitor Survey (IVS) - Ministry for Business, Innovation and
Employment
The database can be exported to csv:
http://nzdotstat.stats.govt.nz/wbos/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=TABLECODE7574#
Description
Tourism is New Zealand's biggest export industry, overtaking dairy in 2015/2016 – it
contributes around 20% of New Zealand's foreign exchange earnings and makes up
about 5.6% of GDP. Tourism in New Zealand has experienced exceptional growth in the
past few years – both the volume (visitor arrivals) and value (visitor spend) contributed
to overal  growth in spending; that is, more people are coming and spending more each
trip.
The International Visitor Survey (IVS) run by MBIE measures the travel patterns and
Official Information Act 1982
expenditure of international visitors to New Zealand. This measure could show trends
in international tourism expenditure per year.
Variables include: expenditure, places visited (by regional tourism organisation and by
territorial tourism organisation), activities/attractions (e.g. a national park, glacier visit,
caving) accommodation (e.g. camping in a national park, DOC hut), and transport.
The time series is 1997 – 2016, although there was a change in methodology in 2013.
under the
Proposed
• Expenditure: line graph, x-axis: years, y-axis: average spend per visitor, could also
presentation
break it down by average spend by country.
• A new webpage needs to be built
• New information needs to be prepared for the report.
Coverage
National, 1997 - 2016
Released
Methodology
Survey type:
(col ection &
• The International Visitor Survey is a sample survey of approximately 9,800
analyses)
international visitors to New Zealand aged 15 years or older per year, excluding
individuals whose purpose of visit to New Zealand was to attend a recognised
educational institute, and are foreign-fee paying students.
Sampling:

•  The International Visitor Survey draws its visitor sample based on measures of the
actual number of target population visitors who departed New Zealand from our
international airports over the survey time period in the previous year. Using actual
historical visitor departure information, time periods are randomly selected with
the probably of being selected based on the number of flights during that period –
periods with no flights will have no probability of being selected while those with a
high number of flights have a high probability. For Auckland, Wel ington and
Queenstown airports two hour time periods are used, while for Christchurch
airport it is a four hour time period.
•  Prior to July 2013, the sampling of the International Visitor Survey was ‘Flight
based’ - a stratified cluster sample of departing international flights with quota
sampling of individual respondents.

Col ection process:
Uses a two part collection process. The first part involves screening departing visitors
during the selected time periods for eligibility and collecting email addresses. The
second part, where the bulk of the information is captured, is via an on-line survey, a
link to which is sent to those eligible and agreeing to participate.

Weighting:
•  Each respondent within the sample is weighted to represent their fraction of the
total number of all international visitors departing New Zealand within the survey’s
target population.
•  Survey response weights are adjusted to reflect the unequal probabilities of
respondent selection from the composition of the target population, and known
Official Information Act 1982
discrepancies between the sample and the population definitions.

More details are available: http://www.mbie.govt.nz/info-services/sectors-
industries/tourism/tourism-research-data/ivs/about-the-ivs/ivs-methodology

A full list of classifications and definitions available: http://www.mbie.govt.nz/info-
under the
services/sectors-industries/tourism/tourism-research-data/ivs/about-the-ivs/ivs-
classifications-and-definitions

Quality Assurance:
StatsNZ have done an assessment of the IVS against the nine Tier 1 principles, available:
http:/
Released /m.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/industry_sectors/Tourism/review-mbie-
tourism-stats/ivs
Limitations to
Data reliability:
data & analysis  •  The IVS draws on a sample of 8,900 departing international visitors per year to
represent the behaviour of international visitors to NZ.
•  The results from the International Visitor Survey are subject to measurement
errors, including both sampling and non sampling errors. These errors should be
considered when analysing the results from the survey.

• The IVS has been designed to achieve a 5 per cent relative margin of error (at the
95 per cent confidence level) for total visitor expenditure
More details are available: http://www.mbie.govt.nz/info-services/sectors-
industries/tourism/tourism-research-data/ivs/about-the-ivs/ivs-data-reliability
Does not include Domestic Travel Survey which finished in 2012.
Changes to
The questionnaire and mode of delivery of the International Visitor Survey was
time series
significantly changed in July 2013. Comparisons of periods that span that time should
only be made with great caution. Every effort has been made to make the published
aggregate series as consistent as possible and the expenditure series was carefully
backcast based on a six month dual run of the old and new methods; but for many
variables there is an inevitable break in the time series at July 2013

Further prompts for details that could be incorporated in the measure assessment template
Methodology
The objectives or main statistical purpose for which the data was originally collected

The titles of any classifications and standards that have been used.
A definition of the target population (or target administrative set), a description of the survey
population (accessible administrative set) and a discussion of any differences between the two
•
Estimated size of target population (target administrative set, eg number of river reaches)
•
Size of survey population (accessible administrative set, eg number of measured river
reaches)
•
The selected sample size/detail on geographic coverage
Official Information Act 1982
Sample design information including the type of sample, stratification details, clustering, ultimate unit
selection method, and any other relevant sampling methodology information
The method used for data collection. For example face to face interview, satellites, monitoring
stations
Any quality control and processing done on the data to reduce errors, e.g. editing and imputation
Procedures, steps or error sources relevant to users of the data, e.g. filtering.
Confidentiality methodology used
Analytical methods (eg regression methods) used to produce data
An explanation of any imputation or non-response adjustment methodology.
under the
Seasonal adjustment and trend methods used
Limitations
Sampling errors for key variables
Extent of non-sampling error
•
Coverage rate for each data source or an assessment or statement on accuracy issues
related to frame or coverage error
•
Measures of modelling error, e.g. goodness of fit tests, confidence intervals of model
parameters, modelled values, totals or other quantities of interest
•
Additional estimates of error where available e.g. validity error, measurement error,
processing error, imputation error
Released
Conceptual differences between the target and operational measure, covering how well the
measure informs on the topic, e.g. missing information or key assumptions
A discussion of the comparability with any other data sources on the same theme
Changes to time
A discussion of the comparability over time, i.e. any changes in concepts, coverage, collection or
series
methodology from previous reference periods
Highlighting of any one off revisions or an explanation of any ongoing revisions
Any other important issues or events influencing the data

Document Outline