Determining the usual environment of cardholders as a key factor to measure the evolution of domestic tourism

Abstract

Domestic tourism is harder to analyse compared to international tourism due to its smaller data footprint generation, as most times private means of transport are used, no border is crossed, and no lodging is registered. Digital data sources can be a useful, but still underused, complement to official survey-based statistics to fill this lack of reliable information. The present paper covers a research gap in the use of card transactions data (on site payments and cash withdrawals) to provide an innovative methodology to enhance vision on domestic tourism dynamics. The chosen approach is based on the United Nations World Tourism Organization definition of ‘usual environment’: “the geographical area (though not necessarily a contiguous one) within which an individual conducts his/her regular life routines” Upon this premise, a methodology has been developed in order to use transactional footprints of cardholders to delineate their usual environment, and subsequently to classify transactions as ‘touristic’ or ‘non-touristic’. So as to ensure scalability, the resulting procedure is non- territory reliant, and can therefore be adapted to different geographies by varying one single parameter. Some practical applications are described in Sect. 5 through two use cases carried out in Spain and Mexico by BBVA.