General Specifications of the Survey

General Purpose of the Survey

The purpose of the National Tourism Survey is to produce statistics and information on households travels in the year 1390.

Target Population

Includes all private settled households in urban and rural areas in 1390. Private unsettled, collective and institutional households are not included in this survey.

Statistical Unit

A private settled household in urban and rural areas in 1390 is considered as a statistical unit in this survey.

Statistical Date

According to the case, statistical date of the measured items is the day of enumeration or the previous season of the statistical date (spring and summer 1390).

Enumeration date

This survey was carried out for summer, during 11 to 30 of Tir[1] and for autumn, during 1 to 15 Mehr [2] 1390.

Enumeration Method

The enumeration was conducted by sampling method.

Estimation Level

Total country is the estimation level of this survey.

Method of Information Collection

In the first stage of the survey, the enumerator collects the touring-related information of the household in spring and enters the collected information in the questionnaire through face to face interview with the head or an informed member of the sample household. In the second stage of enumeration, the enumerator visits the respondent households of the previous season again and collects the touring-related information of the household in summer and enters the collected information in the questionnaire.

Estimates

Estimates of the number of domestic travels by type of travel (without night-stay and with night-stay) in spring and summer, estimation of the number of foreign travels in spring and summer, estimation of the number of domestic travels by the main purpose of the travel in spring and summer, estimation of the travel expenditures of households by expenditure items, type and destination of travel in spring and summer, are the parameters of the survey.

Sampling Frame

Sampling frame for the first stage is the list of the districts of the 2006 Population and Housing Census. In addition to geographical information and number of private settled household, this list contains additional information such as  the ratio of the number of emigrant heads of households to the total number of heads of households, ratio of the number of elderly heads of households to the total number of heads of households, ratio of the number of heads of households with private car to the total number of heads of households, ratio of the people who were born in a place other than their place of living to those people who works in a place other than their place of living.

The sampling frame of the second stage includes the list of the segments that are resulted from the division of the sample districts. Every segment consists of average 80 and 40 households in urban and rural areas respectively. Because of reducing the area of the survey and facilitating the process of implementation, this stage is added to the survey and for this reason, the smaller areas are taken in rural areas.

The sampling frame in the third stage is the list of all private settled households in the sampling units of the second sampling stage which the enumerator has prepared through listing all places and households of the sample segment as listing form.

Sampling Unit

In this survey, the sampling unit is a district in the 2006 Population and Housing Census at first stage, at second stage it is a segment and at third stage, it is a private settled household.

Sampling Method

The sampling method in this survey is three-stage probability sampling with stratification.

Method of Determining the Sample Size

Number of sample households in the total country, number of sample households in every district and number of sample districts in the total country, which are calculated as follows:

The method of determining the number of sample households in the total country:

where:

m: the number of sample households in the total country.

100th × (1- )  ^z ) , Standard Normal Distribution  (for α= 0.05 , 1.96)

P: is the estimation of the desired minimum proportion in the society which is 0.018 with respect to the results of the previous survey

r: accepted relative error for the estimate of the related proportion.

F: proportion estimation of the households who travelled in the society, which is considered 0.52 according to the results of the previous survey.

Deff: the effect of the survey which is considered 1.2 according to the results of the previous survey.

Nr: non-response rate which is considered 0.11 according to the results of the previous survey.

The method of determining the number of sample households in every district:

In multi-stage sampling we have approximately:

where:

m:the average number of sample households in every sampling unit of the first stage

: internal correlation coefficient of the sampling unit at first stage.

Amounts of Deff and  were estimated by using the results of the pilot implementation of the survey. Here, the amount of Deff  is  2, and the amount of  is 0.15 for the variables of the number and expenditure of household travels according to the estimated amounts and according to these results, the amount of  equals to 8. In every district, a number of 4 households are determined as substitute sample household.

The method of determining the number of sample districts in the total country:

Number of sample districts in the total country could be obtained from the formula of , by having the number of sample households in the total country and the number of sample households in every sample district.

After obtaining number of sample districts of the total country, this number, proportionate to the number of private household settled in the provinces, is distributed among different provinces, and the number of sample district in every stratum ( ) is determined in every province proportionate to the number of districts of each stratum.

The Method of Samples Selection

The sample units are selected in three stages. In the first stage and after stratification of the districts, the number of sample districts allocated to every stratum is selected systematically with a selection probability which is proportionate to the number of private settled household in every district. In the second stage, one of the segments of the selected district in the first stage is selected systematically with a selection probability proportionate to the number of private settled household in every segment. In the third stage, the sample households in the selected segment of the second stage are randomly selected.