Relevance

The main objective of the survey on Collective Accommodation Establishments (known as ACCOMSTAT) is to estimate the number of arrivals, number of nights spent, average length of stay and the utilisation rate of bed-places of all active collective accommodation establishments (that is, all collective accommodation establishments which were at least open for one day throughout the reference month) in Malta and Gozo. Furthermore, the number of bedrooms, number of bed-places, and number of days the establishment was closed during the reference month are collected.

Tourism statistics is regulated by Regulation (EU) No. 692/2011 concerning European statistics on tourism and repealing Council Directive 95/57/EC. On a national level, tourism statistics are used extensively in policy making by various Government entities and even for research purposes.

Methodological description of survey

ACCOMSTAT is a monthly census which is conducted among all collective accommodation establishments.  An email or a letter is sent on the first day of the month requesting submission of the data and information is collected through computer aided web interviewing (CAWI), mail and post.

Accuracy and reliability of data

Information on the accuracy and reliability of data can be viewed in a dedicated quality report on the NSO’s metadata website.   

Timeliness and punctuality of data

The Collective Accommodation Establishments news releases are published on the NSO’s website on a monthly basis.  These are published on the pre-established dates as scheduled in the Advance Release Calendar​ which is available on the NSO’s website. 

On an international level, the characteristics of residents and non-residents are sent to Eurostat on a monthly and annual basis respectively, so as to satisfy the requirements laid down by the regulation.

Accessibility and clarity of data

On a montly basis, data related to ACCOMSTAT is included on the NSO’s StatDB. This includes data related to bed-place occupancy by period, region and type of residents.

For national use, a quality report is compiled for Collective Accommodation Establishments and made available on the NSO’s metadata website.  For international use a metadata and quality report are compiled for the supply side of tourism statistics.

Coherence and comparability/consistency of data

Data is fully comparable with other European countries since all requirements and recommendations laid down by the regulation and Methodological Manual for Tourism Statistics are met.

Data is fully comparable from January 2013.  This follows after the reclassification of all collective accommodation establishments registered as apart-hotels to hotels by the Malta Tourism Authority (refer to Legal Notice 351, 2012).

Figures from ACCOMSTAT are use for National Accounts purposes, and therefore ACCOMSTAT and National Accounts should be fully reconcilable.  Statistics on non-resident arrivals and nights from TOURSTAT and the survey on Collective Accommodation Establishments are not directly comparable in view of different definitions and methodologies.

Metadata