The World Travel Monitor (WTM) / European Travel Monitor (ETM) is a worldwide tourism information system detailing the foreign (outbound) travel behaviour practiced by a country’s respective resident population.World/European Travel Monitor, Tourism Market Research,Tourism Marketing&Masterplanning
IPK International. Retrieved on 2012-05-01.

Origins and objective

The ''European Travel Monitor'' has been continuously surveying the most important data on outbound travel behaviour from all European countries since 1988. In 1995, the ''European Travel Monitor'' was expanded to the ''World Travel Monitor'' to cover all the important overseas markets (United States, Canada, Australia,

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

, Japan, China, India, etc.). Data is collected by the architects of the Monitor or by means of working cooperations in the various countries. Today (2013), the ''World Travel Monitor'' chronicles about 90% of all international travel flows. Conceived and realised by IPK International, the surveys have the objective of tracking all outbound

travel Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. Travel c ...

of at least one overnight stay, regardless of travel motive. Apart from holiday trips, business trips and all other private trips (e.g. visiting friends or relatives) are also recorded. The driving impetus behind establishing this information system – initially for Germany (''German Travel Monitor'') and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

– was the fact that it was not possible for decision-makers in the

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

field, based on the information available to them up to that point in time, to gain an overview of the European market or any overseas markets (in the form of a

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases sp ...

enabling a direct comparison of aspects such as the volume and structure of outbound trips taken by the

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

Americans Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many Multi ...

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

, etc.). While various surveys and official

statistic A statistic (singular) or sample statistic is any quantity computed from values in a sample which is considered for a statistical purpose. Statistical purposes include estimating a population parameter, describing a sample, or evaluating a hypo ...

s were available prior to the introduction of the ''World Travel Monitor / European Travel Monitor'', the individual

dataset A data set (or dataset) is a collection of data. In the case of tabular data, a data set corresponds to one or more database tables, where every column of a table represents a particular variable, and each row corresponds to a given record of the ...

s were virtually impossible to compare because there were major dissimilarities among the samplings as well as among the survey methods used in the individual countries. The ''World Travel Monitor / European Travel Monitor'' are cooperative partnership studies. Main contracting entities include national and regional tourist boards, tourism and economics

ministries Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian mi ...

tour operator A tour operator is a business that typically combines and organizes accommodations, meals, sightseeing and transportation components, in order to create a package tour. They advertise and produce brochures to promote their products, holidays and ...

s, international

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...

chains,

advertising agencies An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally ...

consulting firm A consulting firm or simply consultancy is a professional service firm that provides expertise and specialised labour for a fee, through the use of consultants. Consulting firms may have one employee or thousands; they may consult in a broad range ...

s, etc.

Methodology

The ''World Travel Monitor / European Travel Monitor'' are population-representative surveys; i.e., the composition of the sample corresponds to the composition of the population in the respective countries (over the age of 15). Study respondents are surveyed by computer-supported telephone, face-to-face interviews (the so-called

CATI Computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) is a telephone surveying technique in which the interviewer follows a script provided by a software application. It is a structured system of microdata collection by telephone that speeds up the col ...

and CAPI methods or via

online interview An online interview is an online research method conducted using computer-mediated communication (CMC), such as instant messaging, email, or video. Online interviews require different ethical considerations, sampling and rapport than practices found ...

s. The number of

interview An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers.Merriam Webster DictionaryInterview Dictionary definition, Retrieved February 16, 2016 In common parlance, the word "interview" ...

s conducted varies depending upon the size and significance of a source market (from 2,000 interviews per year in smaller markets up to 24,000 interviews per year in large markets). Altogether, approximately 500,000 interviews are conducted annually on behalf of the ''World Travel Monitor''. This large sample size translates into better quality and yields a stronger, more profound

statistical analysis Statistical inference is the process of using data analysis to infer properties of an underlying distribution of probability.Upton, G., Cook, I. (2008) ''Oxford Dictionary of Statistics'', OUP. . Inferential statistical analysis infers propertie ...

of the data acquired. It also allows a considerably more precise analytical market segmenting so that reliable information can be furnished even on smaller segments. All the important

parameters A parameter (), generally, is any characteristic that can help in defining or classifying a particular system (meaning an event, project, object, situation, etc.). That is, a parameter is an element of a system that is useful, or critical, when ...

of travel are surveyed using a standardized

questionnaire A questionnaire is a research Research is "creativity, creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge". It involves the collection, organization and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, ...

, the basic questions of which have remained unchanged since 1988. The questionnaire used for the ''World Travel Monitor / European Travel Monitor'' factors in both a determination of travel volume (number of trips taken abroad) as well as numerous individual trip characteristics. Apart from the number of trips/overnights, the following parameters are identified:World/European Travel Monitor: Travel Data Europe/America/Asia; holiday trips/business trips
IPK International. Retrieved on 2012-05-01. *number of outbound trips / market volume *destination countries (worldwide) *destination regions / cities *purpose of trip (business trip, holiday trip, other trips (VFR, pilgrimage, language holiday)) *holiday types / segments (sunseekers, tours, specific cities, mountain trips, cruises, winter sports, wellness/health-motivated, etc.) *holiday motives / activities (relaxing, sightseeing, get to know the country and its people, good food and drinks etc.) *repeat visits of a destination *types of business trips (MICE-Meeting, Incentive, Convention, Exhibition as well as traditional business trips) *length of trip *means of transportation (incl. low-fare) *accommodation types / categories (5*, 4*, 3*, 2/1* hotel, other accommodation (holiday home, camping etc.)) *booking -behaviour / -sites / -products / -period *internet usage *travel information sources *trips with children *travel season *travel spending *target group / traveler profile (gender / age / education / income / children in household / household size) *regional focus markets *travel frequency *travel intensity

References

https://my-traveltips.com/

External links

*Official Website IPK International (http://www.ipkinternational.com) *Visiting South America (http://travelprojects.com.au/blog/visiting-south-america-is-truly-a-life-changing-experience/) *European Travel Commission

European Tourism Insights 2010) *Deutsche Zentrale für Tourismus,

Incoming-Tourismus Deutschland) *ITB Berlin,

ITB WORLD TRAVEL TRENDS REPORT 2011/2012) *ITB Berlin

A boost for South America – USA stagnates) *ITB Berlin

European tourism defies the euro crisis) *ITB Berlin

Asian Top 3”: China outbound is growing faster than Japan and South Korea) *ITB Berlin

Sporting holidays are gaining ground in Europe) {{tourism Tourism agencies Market research companies of Germany

Origins and objective

Methodology

References

Further reading

External links