Total sales of tourism-related goods and services grew at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of
5.3 percent in the second quarter of 2004 to $965.0 billion, according to preliminary estimates
of the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.  In the first quarter of 2004, total tourism sales
grew 10.9 percent (revised).  

Direct tourism sales – goods and services sold directly to visitors – accounted for $546.4 
billion of the total.  Another $418.6 billion was derived from indirect tourism sales -- those
things used to produce the goods and services visitors buy.  Direct tourism-related employment
grew by 8.9 thousand employees (seasonally adjusted at annual rates) in the first quarter 2004.

Other highlights of the release include:
·  Direct tourism-related sales increased 5.6 percent, $7.4 billion at an annual rate, in the 
   second quarter of 2004.  
·  Over one-third of this increase was due to growth in passenger air transportation, which
   increased 11.4 percent to $95.5 billion.
·  Hotel and other traveler accommodations grew 7.9 percent to $85.0 billion.
·  All other transportation-related goods and services rose 6.8 percent to $109.6 billion.

Total tourism-related sales of goods and services is the key indicator of the travel and tourism
satellite accounts (TTSAs) now being used.  Today’s figure includes, for the first time,
estimates of the sales of goods and services to visitors from all industries,  instead of the 
sales from tourism industries only.  As a result, this indicator better targets the TTSAs by 
providing more information on what travelers are purchasing.

Estimates of tourism-related employment are also presented for the first time.  The biggest growth
in direct tourism employment in the first quarter of 2004 occurred in the food services and
drinking places industry.  An increase of 7,000 jobs there accounted for 79 percent of the total
growth in direct tourism-related employment.  Over the same period, 1,800 jobs and 1,900 jobs were
added, respectively, in the recreation and entertainment and air transportation industries.  Direct
tourism employment in all other transportation-related industries fell by 2,500 jobs.  In the fourth
quarter of 2003, direct tourism employment grew 1.9 percent.

With this release of the TTSAs, BEA has completed an important step in improving the accuracy of its
industry data.  This step introduces the first set of quarterly TTSAs that are based on a new more 
accurate methodology that is directly linked to the annual TTSAs. 

The new linkage of the quarterly updates to BEA’s annual TTSAs has made it possible to expand the
scope of the data presented in this release.  Future quarterly updates will benefit from the time-
series consistency the revised annual TTSAs offer because of their direct linkage to the recently
integrated annual industry accounts.  The September 2004 issue of the Survey of Current Business will
present an article describing the revised annual TTSAs, including greater detail on the improvements 
to the accounts.  

The revised annual TTSAs for 1998-2003 are available at BEA’s Web site <www.bea.gov>.  Sales of goods
and services to visitors are higher for all years due to changes in both source data and methodology;
however, these revisions do not change the overall trends in sales.  As the result of these changes,
total tourism sales for 2002 were $120 billion higher than BEA’s prior estimates, of which:  
 
·  $85 billion was accounted for by more complete coverage of tourism purchases, such as automotive
   repair services purchased by travelers.
·  $22 billion was accounted for by new and updated measures of tourism’s share of industry sales,
   in particular for purchases of both gasoline and nondurable goods.
·  $13 billion was accounted for by incorporating revisions to industry sales.

BEA’s estimates of tourism-related sales include figures for both “direct” and “indirect” sales.  
Direct tourism-related sales comprise all output consumed directly by visitors (e.g., traveler 
accommodations, passenger air transportation, souvenirs); indirect tourism-related sales comprise all
output used as inputs in the process of producing direct tourism-related output (e.g., toiletries for 
hotel guests, the various ingredients used to make the meals served airline passengers, and the plastic
used to produce souvenir key chains). Indirect sales were estimated using commodity-by-commodity total 
requirements coefficients from BEA’s annual input-output accounts.

BEA’s estimates of tourism-related employment measure “direct” tourism-related employment.  Direct
tourism-related employment comprises all jobs where the workers are engaged in the production of direct
tourism-related output (e.g., hotel staff, airline pilots, and souvenir sellers).




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Next release – Travel and Tourism Activity for third quarter 2004 will be released December 20, 2004 at
8:30 a.m. EST.