Resumen de Measuring tourism using mobile network data

Belén González Olmos, María del Carmen Velasco Gimeno

• IIn Spain, Tourism basic statistics are responsibility of the National Statistical Institute (INE) and traditionally are based on surveys. In recent years, due to the challenges associated with the collection of data from persons, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, national statistics offices have explored the access to data generated by private sector using two different approaches: based oneither a specific arrangement or taking advantage of a regulatory framework. In this article, the Spanish experience in the use of mobile phones positioning data is explained. INE uses mobile phone positioning data as auxiliary information to tourism surveys with the objective of improving the geographical breakdown of tourism figures. The use of this source of information allows obtaining newproductswithagranularityintermsoforigin/destinationoftourists that would be impossible to achieve using traditional techniques, without increasing the cost of the statistics and the burden on the informant. Nonetheless, it poses some challenges in terms of quality assurance and sustainable access. The results are published as experimental statistics, but the ultimate aim is to integrate them with traditional tourism surveys.