It is important note from onset that the limitations with regards to compilation of tourism economic account at sub-national level are not unique to South Africa. It is for this reason that the development of such a framework is being championed by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation. Thus, at this stage, there is no framework that can be used for production of statistics at provincial and municipal level in the same manner that the Tourism Satellite Account is produced.
The Department has establish the National Tourism Research and Knowledge Management Committee, a technical committee comprised of officials responsible for tourism data at provincial level. This committee serves as a platform to strengthen initiatives related to tourism data collection at provincial and local level. Statistics South Africa is a standing member of this committee. This committee, was afford an opportunity to make input into the UNWTO process of developing a tourism economic account.
Furthermore, the department invites StatsSA on a regular basis to engage with tourism stakeholders at platforms such as the National Tourism Stakeholder Forum (NTSF) which constitutes of representatives from government i.e. ((a) provinces and (b) municipalities) and private sector to share information related to tourism statistics. This information includes methodologies for compilation of different data sets as well as tourism standard definitions to ensure comparability.