Sixteen versus nine expenditure categories in tourism surveys: Is there a difference

This study examined differences in response rates and data reliability between two self-responding expenditure survey designs containing 16 and 9 expenditure categories, respectively. Four test indicators were used: initial response rate, overall usable response rate, number of group expenditures per day, and average daily group expenditures. These results suggest that using 9 instead of 16 expenditure category scales may produce equally reliable economic estimates and reduce visitor burden, therefore potentially increasing overall response rates and reducing survey costs. Estimating the economic impact of nonresident travel to a state or region is an important component of comprehen-sive travel and tourism planning. Economic impact estimates are often used to justify future developments and to monitor past management actions (Frechtling 1987). It is important that the data used in these estimates be as accurate as pos-sible since a small error could result in very large differences in economic projections (Howard, Lankford, and Havit