Africa-Press – Seychelles. The Central Bank of Seychelles (CBS) said the new methodology to estimate tourism earnings better captures revenue earned by the sector.
Until recently, the estimated tourism earnings were calculated based on foreign exchange inflows into the domestic economy, primarily the amount converted into Seychelles rupees through commercial banks and bureaux de change.
According to CBS, such estimates did not take into account the proportion of foreign exchange kept abroad, meaning total earnings generated by the tourism sector were therefore underestimated.
It revised the methodology in 2016, to address the shortcomings.
CBS’ economist, Audrey Rath, said the new estimation model covers earnings generated from tourism in four areas, namely accommodation, extras such as restaurants, domestic ferry and domestic flights.
“It calculates earnings based on occupancy data and room prices, as well as provides wider coverage of revenue, not only what is converted into rupees. As such it reflects a higher level of tourism earnings compared to the previous method,” explained Ms Rath.
The new methodology was endorsed by the department of Statistics of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and a revised series of tourism earnings was incorporated in the Balance of Payments (BOP) statistics for the first quarter of 2022, released at the end of June 2022.
CBS has also revised the statistics between 2016 and 2021 using the new methodology.
First deputy Governor, Brian Commettant, said the new methodology gives a clearer picture of estimated earnings, meaning the way of reporting has improved.
“This new method means we can better capture tourism earnings. It could be the earnings was there, but the method we were using could not capture it, so it was not being reported,” explained Mr Commettant.
CBS says the revisions made to the Tourism Earnings data 2016-2021 impacted the Travel Services component of the Current Account in a positive way, showing lower deficits compared to what was previously estimated.
A Current Account deficit arises when outflows are higher than inflows. Whereas Current Account surplus arises when inflows are higher than outflows.
According to CBS, the average amount of earning by visitor estimated in 2021 was around US $3218.
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