Sixteen versus Nine Expenditure Categories in Tourism Surveys: Is There a Difference?

Abstract

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.