International Visitor Survey Methodology
Last updated:
April 2008
Survey Purpose
The purpose of the International Visitor Survey (IVS) is to provide accurate, quarterly national information on the characteristics, behaviour and expenditure of international visitors.
In particular:
- To measure the amount of expenditure of international visitors;
- To determine the activities international visitors participate in, the transport and accommodation types used, and places visited;
- To provide data for determining the travel credits component in the Balance of Payments, and tourism expenditure in the Tourism Satellite Account;
- To provide demographic information about international visitors, their motivation for visiting New Zealand, and their satisfaction with their visit to New Zealand.
Survey Type
The International Visitors Survey is a sample survey of approximately 5,200 international visitors to New Zealand aged 15 years or older per year.
Sampling
In January 2003, the sampling of the International Visitor Survey changed to become ‘Flight based’. This is a stratified cluster sample of departing international flights with quota sampling of individual respondents.
The sample is selected from departing international visitors aged 15 years and older at New Zealand’s three largest international airports; Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
Interviews are carried out according to pre-specified quotas each month, with interviews spread throughout the month, quarter and year.
Prior to January 2003, the sampling design was a systematic random sample of departing international visitors aged 15 years and older at Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch airports. The methodology was changed to allow more control over the sample sizes achieved for smaller countries of interest and changes at Auckland International Airport.
Field Work
The IVS interviewers are located at the departure gates of selected flights targeted for interviewing. People at the departure gates are approached to see if they are eligible for the survey and asked to take part in the survey.
The interview is conducted using CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing) using notebook personal computers. The International Visitor Survey interviewers are multilingual and cover the majority of languages spoken in New Zealand’s major overseas travel markets.
Weighting
The sample is weighted to represent all international visitors aged 15 years and older departing by air from all New Zealand international airports. Raking ratio weighting is used to adjust for known discrepancies between the sample and the population and ensures that the weights sum to known population totals from Statistics New Zealand external migration statistics.
Survey Responsibility
From 1 July 2008 the Tourism Strategy Group was fully responsible for all processes of the International Visitor Survey and only the data collection will be outsourced. The Tourism Strategy Group analyses and disseminates the survey results.
The survey is carried out with the assistance of the Airports, Security Staff, Airlines and Statistics New Zealand.
Survey History
The IVS started in 1984 with the International Survey of Visitor Expenditure. Prior to 1984, international visitor expenditure information was collected from the Bank of New Zealand travel receipts. From 1984 onwards, the IVS was conducted at varying intervals, becoming a bi-annual survey through the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.
In January 1995, the IVS became a continuous ongoing survey, with the questionnaire changing in January 1997 to accommodate more expenditure details as well as activity and attraction information. Throughout this time various market research companies have been contracted to conduct the IVS. NFO New Zealand Limited conducted the IVS from 1997 through to 2002 in conjunction with the then client, Tourism New Zealand. In July 2002, in line with the New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2010, responsibility for the IVS was transferred to the Ministry of Tourism.
The Nielsen Company took over the contract at the beginning of 2003 and ran the survey to June 2008. From July 2008 the Ministry will directly manage the IVS and the data collection will be outsourced to Covec Limited.
For the latest International Visitor Survey data, click here.
See Also
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