The issues in methodology and data interpretation in studies of tourist attractions' attendance: Annual passes

Abstract

The attendance belongs to the basic quantitative indicators, which are used for assessment of the offer in the tourism. It should be used for monitoring of development, geographical structure, seasonality and from interpretational view also for monitoring of achievement or failure. This paper discusses, emphasizes and evaluates the very current topic of methodological differences in the data collection of tourist attractions attendance. The work focuses especially on the subtopic of annual passes on the example of zoos, which belong to the most visited tourist attractions worldwide and where the sale of annual cards is a typical service. Nevertheless, this article proves on the example of the zoos in German-speaking countries that the rise of attendance does not only have to show the reality. The total number of visits and the positive attendance development is in some zoos connected to the methodological approach.