Dr. Tadayuki Hara, associate dean of UCF’s Rosen College of Hospitality Management, led the Regional Workshop on Tourism Statistics and Tourism Satellite Accounts in Ankara, Turkey from Dec. 2-4. The event was co-organized by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC).
The workshop is part of a larger project aimed at building statistical capabilities in the tourism sector among member countries of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Experts from the National Statistics Offices, OIC member country tourism authorities and international agencies participated. In total, 27 Islamic countries were represented, including Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Malaysia, Qatar, Sudan, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Yemen.
“Tourism as an industry contributes significantly to the national and regional economy, but statistics on tourism are not fully developed for OIC member nations,” said Dr. Hara. “The goal of this workshop was to improve tourism data collection and analysis, so that these countries can better understand the sector and identify opportunities for international collaboration.”
The workshop sessions covered the following topics:
Dr. Hara serves as a UNWTO Consultant on tourism statistics and was the sole instructor for the workshop. He is also the author of the only technical textbook on the subject, “Quantitative Tourism Industry Analysis: Introduction to Input-output, Social Accounting Matrix Modeling and Tourism Satellite Accounts,” published in 2008.
For more information about hospitality management education at Rosen College, please visit hospitality.ucf.edu.