Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística

About - 2003-2006

Tourism has grown substantially in the last few years as a social and economic phenomenon. As a consequence, the traditional descriptions of this activity, based mainly on the social and cultural aspects of travelers, have been complemented by an economic approach so as to identify and measure the contributions made by tourism to the economy of the countries.

In its first study about the topic, IBGE released, in 2007, the publication Tourism Economics: characteristic activities of tourism 2003. FThis publication had the technical cooperation of the Ministry of Tourism and the Brazilian Institute of Tourism – EMBRATUR and was based on the use of economic and household surveys regularly produced by the institution. Their results allow the identification of the main economic aspects of companies belonging to the tourism subsector, of the demand for tourism products by Brazilian families and the socio-economic features of manpower employed in tourism-related activities. The study Tourism Economics: a Macroeconomic Perspective 2000-2005, conceived through the same partnership, was released in 2008 and presented, for the first time, the main macroeconomic indicators for Tourism Activities according to data taken from the System of National Accounts. The study surely represents an important step in the determination of the economic range of tourism in Brazil.

In this publication, IBGE brings a concept review of the previous study, mainly based on a more precise definition of the activities related to tourism economics. This change has made it possible to improve the results of the main economic aggregates obtained so far.

The publication presents the conceptualization of tourism, highlighting the relevance of its analysis and evaluation as an economic and social phenomenon; a detailed report of the main methodological changes introduced in relation to the definition and classification of products and activities of this segment,; analyses of the structure of Tourism Activities 2006 and of the evolution of the main macroeconomic indicators in the period 2003-2006. It also contains a glossary with the concepts considered essential for the understanding of results, besides annexes with detailed classifications of specific products and tourism-related ones.

These data area also available on the CD-ROM which comes enclosed with the publication and on the IBGE web site.

With these studies, based on the System of National Accounts, IBGE underlines the segment of tourism as a remarkable and relevant economic activity at the same time it contributes to the elaboration of an integrated system of statistics directed to the construction of a Satellite Account of Tourism in Brazil.