LEARNING OUTCOMES

The activity aims to provide the practical technical skills (including statistical skills) needed to conduct preliminary surveys, analyse data and use them in designing tourism initiatives.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the teaching, students will be able to approach a market research problem in the tourism field, to analyze data collected in Excel and to set up a shared planning in the tourism field. Students will be able to find official data directly in the portals of the producing statistical agencies and to evaluate the quality of statistical data available on the web. 

• Knowledge and understanding Students have acquired adequate knowledge of the nature and principles of measuring tourism phenomena. This knowledge is inserted in the national and international context of surveys conducted by official statistical production bodies with particular attention to the way questionnaires are drawn up and administered and the sampling methods. Students are also aware of the logic that led to the construction of the main national and international indicators used to measure these phenomena, the current trends in their use and their evolution to meet new knowledge needs.
• Ability to apply knowledge and understanding Students are able to find the data necessary to understand the tourism phenomena and to replicate the indices studied during the course on new data or to build new ones, useful for their cognitive purposes, also in a historical perspective and international comparison. Students will also be able to build questionnaires suitable for their own cognitive purposes, define a sampling plan and analyse the data collected in Excel.
• Autonomy of judgement Students are able to assess the quality of data available online, in particular to understand if their collection and analysis meets the quality criteria typical of official statistics. Similarly, having had the opportunity to understand the fundamentals of the construction of statistical indicators, being confronted with a summary indicator of a tourism phenomenon, they are able to understand the adequacy and robustness of the calculation methodology.
• Communication skills Students acquire the fundamental statistical vocabulary to communicate clearly and unambiguously with specialist and non-specialist interlocutors. In particular, they learn to interpret in an operational key press releases, data tables and graphic representations typical of the economic, social and demographic sciences, especially when produced by official statistical bodies.
• Learning skills Students, having had the opportunity to know in detail many official surveys, are able to assess the quality of the data they will use during their studies and professional career.

PREREQUISITES

None.

TEACHING METHODS

Face-to-face lectures. In case it would be impossible, for health reasons, to carry out the lessons in presence, they will be delivered remotely in streaming mode.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Part I - Statistical laboratory

1. Introduction

• Definition of statistics
• The branches of statistics
• The nature of data
• Data sources
• Datasets, statistical units and variables
• The value of official statistics
• Total surveys and sample studies
• Sampling designs and statistical inference
• Data collection techniques
• Sampling and non-sampling errors
• Questionnaire design

2. Tourism statistics

• Main definitions
• Statistics on tourism demand
• Statistics on tourism supply
• Main tourism surveys in Italy
• Focus: tourism in Liguria
• The European system of tourism indicators
• Big data and tourism statistics
• The tourism satellite account

3. Introduction to statistical analysis with spreadsheets

• Introduction to Microsoft Excel
• Basic functions: sum, count, sum.se, count.se, search.vert
• Creating frequency tables with Excel; Pivot tables
• Graphs and cartograms

Part II - Shared design workshop

The second part of the workshop consists of visits on the territory to allow students to closely observe experiences really implemented and to talk with the corresponding actors on the regional territory.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Corbetta P., Gasperoni G e Pisati M. (2001). Statistica per la ricerca sociale. Il Mulino
• Floria G. (2020). Excel dal problema alla soluzione: Per le versioni 2019, 2016, 2013. Apogeo
• Materiali caricati aulaweb

For international students, slides and texts in English are available on request. The exam can be taken in English in the prescribed manner.