This paper describes the current state of and issues related to tourism statistics. Firstly, it discusses the status of worldwide tourism statistics. Tourism statistics are related to tourism economics and categorized into inbound tourism, outbound tourism, domestic tourism, and the tourism industry. International organizations have established a tourism statistics standard for more than half a century. However, standards vary considerably between countries. Currently, about twenty percent of participants are responsible for the series of tourism statistics produced. In the future, it is hoped that many countries will not only produce a regional Tourism Satellite Account and tourism statistics, but also use big data and open data.
Next, this paper discusses the veracity of tourism statistics. The concept of veracity is crucial to the methodologies of social statistics found in the social sciences of politics, economics, and sociology. The principle of veracity requires both reliability and accuracy. The reliability of statistics ensures veracity in the design and planning phase of surveys, whereas the accuracy of statistics ensures veracity in the implementation phase of surveys. A statistical survey in all sectors including tourism must meet both requirements.
However, the veracity of tourism statistics is doubtful and difficult to secure because of the specific nature of tourism. Because tourists are highly mobile, it is difficult to ensure that a truly representative or probable sample is obtained. Tourism behavior is particularly vulnerable to physical conditions and interruptions such as weather, crowds, and noise. For example, heavy rain diminishes response rates and information quality. Further, survey results vary greatly depending on the conditions. Similarly, the timing of the measurement process is important. In the field of tourism consumption, expenditures reported prior to travel may be estimates. Data collected during travel may even represent a mixture of actual and intended behavior. Although post-travel measures seem to be more realistic, they struggle to identify respondents and present some difficulties in accurate recall.
Indeed, such problems are too numerous to state. Recently, few studies have been attempted to discuss and resolve these issues. As a result, empirical analysis in tourism research still lags that in other academic fields, and the analysis results are considered to have less value for practitioners and policymakers. Only further development of tourism statistics research is not able to solve the problems. Some problems are currently beyond tourism statistics research. Hence, it is hoped that the rising sophistication of tourism statistics will advance tourism research as a whole.

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In this paper, we outline a definition and methodology of the tourism economics and survey about results of research after 1990’s when economic studies for tourism phenomenon had begun in Japan actively. In section II, we examine the definition and the scope of tourism economics. At stage of the economics of tourism, there are not its original analytic tools and methodology. The analytic tools are settled within the microeconomics and macroeconomics mainly. The original viewpoints and tools of the economic analysis for the tourism phenomenon is necessary to establish one independent field called the tourism economics. For the purpose, tourism amenity is important keyword, and analysis in consideration of five economic properties peculiar to tourism is necessary. In section III, we survey results of research of the tourism economics in eight fields. Finally, we end up with future problems of tourism economics.

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Firstly this paper will discuss the trends of main economic studies on a tourism phenomenon. Particularly, we summarize on the trends of tourism economic studies from the viewpoint of microeconomics and macroeconomics that are the field of modern economics. In microeconomics, the trends of tourism economic studies will be summarized from three domains of tourism demand, tourism supply, and tourism market. In macroeconomics, they will be summarized from three domains of the national economy, the international economy, and the regional economy. Finally, we take up the issues on the tourism economic study and consider future trends.

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One of key agendas for tourism studies in recent years has been the theoretical construction of a framework for social tourism, which originated in the movements of the Holiday with Pay Convention in the 1930s. A contemporary wellknown case of this is CALYPSO in the EU, while the most instructive framework is the four models consisting of concerned tourists and tourism products presented by Minnaert, Maitland、and Miller in 2013. This paper surveys other principal frameworks for studying social tourism、 and argues that social tourism is regarded as an indispensable ingredient of the transmodern paradigm、 because is based on the same postulate as the transmodern. The essence of these both lie in recognizing all people as human beings with dignity, which allows us to assume that this is the focal point on which social tourism can be put into practice in a capitalistic system founded on the principle of economic egoism.

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