The current problems in the development of tourism satellite accounts, tourism statistics and their role in the development of industry in Georgia

Abstract

Tourism is one of the priority areas of economic development in Georgia. Georgia being a part of world tourism market has the ability to become an attractive country for foreign tourists in a short period of time thus this attraction as a whole will contribute to the country’s socio-economic development. The market model for the formation of tourism statistics should be created in order to analyze the current condition of tourism and to forecast its future development. This is caused because of current situation – the number of foreign tourists should be specified; quantitative assessment of domestic tourist flows is not available; the volume of tourism product and its share in country’s macroeconomic indicators in general is not calculated; the exact data about employment in this field is not available; calculation of aggregate indicators of investment is complicated; value added of tourism and tax incomes receivable in given field could not be calculated. In the following paper the attention is paid to the problem of creating of Tourism Satellite Accounts in the Georgian National Accounts system. These accounts play the key role in achievement of tourism sector sustainable development as the core of country's economic growth and future infrastructural development. This system exactly is the basis of the estimation of tourism product share and forecast in country’s economy.